In today's Brazos Valley Physician's Organization Journal of Medicine Report, Dr. Jarrad Cashion discusses interactions between medications and health supplements.

A lot of people come to chiropractors for natural needs and try to forgo using medications. Supplements are usually not as potent as medications, but they do have similar effects. For example, red yeast is very commonly used in China as a drug for lowering cholesterol.

I have found people that have used both of them, a Staten drug and the yeast rise component and they should not because it's actually doubling up on the medication, which could be harmful to them.

It's just a natural process, things that naturally occur in nature. You can get them through your foods, sometimes you can't get enough through certain foods, so you have to get them through supplements with different vitamins, different minerals. You actually have to figure out if you're deficient in it, so blood work would help with that method to figure out if you are deficient in it.

The Brazos Valley Physician's Organization is a group of independent physicians who provide local, comprehensive services to the greater Brazos Valley while preserving choice and the sanctity of the patient-physician relationship. Our vision is that the patient always comes first.