Supplements are medicines too

The other day, I wrote a post I called "Do you know what you're taking?"  It referred to the Therapeutic Goods Administration's website. I found another website for a not-for-profit, the National Prescribing Service. Their slogan is "For a medicinewise Australia." I found their site a little hard to use, and not terribly useful, but I did find a couple good things in there. Particularly, one article entitled "Vitamins and minerals are medicines too". 


From that article: "Taking more than the recommended dose of some vitamins and minerals can cause problems. For example, vitamins A, D, E and K are stored in the body. If too much of one of these vitamins accumulates in your body, it can become toxic. With others, if you take in more than you need, the excess is simply wasted. Like other medicines, supplements can cause side effects and can interact with other medicines, especially when taken in large doses. So, when telling a doctor or pharmacist about the medicines you are taking, don’t forget to tell them about any vitamin and mineral supplements."

I still can't find a fact sheet that describes how chemotherapies interact with vitamins to back up what my patients told me, but I'll keep looking until I find it.