Pharyngula

Typical.

Damn the vitamin industry anyway. They've earned my undying enmity, thanks to an inexcusable labeling decision compounded by the inexcusable stupidity of a doctor my wife saw. As we were finally informed a year and a half after our daughter's birth, St. John's Wort may or may not be an effective treatment for depression, but it's a very effective antidote to hormonal birth control, which neither the doctor nor the vitamin labelers could be bothered to mention.

I'd like to see the doctor's medical license revoked; recommending a nutritional supplement held to only vitamin standards to treat a condition normally treated by prescription drugs is legitimate, I suppose, but only marginally. Recommending a drug (including a "nutritional supplement" used like a drug) without bothering to mention side effects of that magnitude is absolutely inexcusable (and I'm reasonably certain it had been on the market long enough for those side effects to have been established). Unfortunately, my wife remembers neither the doctor's name nor the brand of vitamin, and doesn't think it's worth pursuing...

Posted by: Azkyroth | May 19, 2006 5:24 PM

"St. John's Wort may or may not be an effective treatment for depression, but it's a very effective antidote to hormonal birth control"

I have to say, this is a new effect on me. I would also point out that St. John's Wort is not a vitamin. It is an herb, and I wouldn't call it a "nutritional supplement," but rather an herbal remedy. However, the problem (lack of regulation, lack of scientific rigor) is the same.

Posted by: Orac | May 19, 2006 11:25 PM

Hmmm...St. John's Wort=overhyped "cure" and extensive self-diagnosis. At least your wife went to a doctor. Too many people start taking herbal supplements without considering what the herbs might do. As people put it "They're safe 'cause they're natural." As I love to point out, poison ivy is all natural. That doesn't mean I want to rub it on my skin!

I read about the St. John's Wort/birth control interaction some time ago in a women's magazine..Cosmo or something like that. I've never had a doctor tell me to take an herbal supplement for a medical condition, if my PCP did, I'd find a new one. If the depression was enough to warrant medication, that medication should be administered in specific dosages by a physician. Herbal supplements are too variable. That doctor should lose their license.

On the vitamin front, anyone else ever notice prenatal vitamins are cheaper (cut them in half for the proper dosage) than other "women's" vitamins. I complained to my PCP about the expense of multi-vitamins, she told me to buy pre-natal vitamins and cut them in half. Twice as many vitamins for the same cost.

As for unintended pregnancy, a friend got pregnant while on the pill because she didn't know that antibiotics decrease the effectiveness of the pill. She said no one ever warned her that could happen. I told her there's always a little warning sticker on my antibiotics that says the pill won't work while taking them. My friend told me her bottle didn't have a warning on it.....I asked her to show it to me, turns out there was a big red sticker telling her about this little side effect. It's certainly something the doctor should have mentioned when he gave her the antibiotics.

Posted by: Pygmy Loris | May 20, 2006 3:14 AM

It's certainly something the doctor should have mentioned when he gave her the antibiotics.

Sounds like two people dropped the ball--the pharmacist should have gone over that with her when the pills were dispensed, too.

Posted by: RavenT | May 20, 2006 11:43 AM