Patients with cardiovascular disease might be particularly vulnerable to the effects of complementary medicine (CM), cardiologists say.
Writing in a perspective in the MJA, Sydney basedcardiologists Hosen Kiat and Dennis Hsu-Tung Chang and colleagues said the adverse effects were due primarily to drug interaction or reduced adherence to conventional therapies.
Furthermore, these adverse effects could be amplified by the variable quality and lack of standard dosing of complementary medicines and the number of CM products consumed.
Examples of CM that were commonly used in the treatment of CVD –and their adverse effects – included Aloe Vera (diarrhoea and potassium depletion), fenugreek (diarrhoea and hypoglycaemia), ginseng (insomnia), ephedra (stroke and MI), Gingko biloba (bleeding) and red yeast rice (myopathy and rhabdomyolysis).
The relatively wide use of complementary medicines in people with CVD meant it was ‘vital” that doctors were aware of CM use, particularly as use was not disclosed by cardiac patients up to 65% of the time, the authors said.
“The main reasons were fear of clinician disapproval and because clinicians had not asked about CM use,” they wrote.
“This strongly suggests that clinicians need to take a less judgemental and more proactive approach to encourage patient discussion of CM use, regardless of adherence to conventional treatment,” they concluded.