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Hepatitis C Safety Caveats
An aggressive program of dietary supplementation should not be
launched without the supervision of a qualified physician. Several of
the nutrients suggested in this protocol may have adverse effects.
These include:
Calcium
- Do not take calcium if you have hypercalcemia.
- Do not take calcium if you form calcium-containing kidney stones.
- Ingesting calcium without food can increase the risk of kidney stones in women and possibly men.
- Calcium can cause gastrointestinal symptoms such as constipation, bloating, gas, and flatulence.
- Large doses of calcium carbonate (12 grams or more daily or 5
grams or more of elemental calcium daily) can cause milk-alkali
syndrome, nephrocalcinosis, or renal insufficiency.
Garlic
- Garlic has blood-thinning, anticlotting properties.
- Discontinue using garlic before any surgical procedure.
- Garlic can cause headache, muscle pain, fatigue, vertigo,
watery eyes, asthma, and gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea and
diarrhea.
- Ingesting large amounts of garlic can cause bad breath and body odor.
Green Tea
- Consult your doctor before taking green tea extract if you take
aspirin or warfarin (Coumadin). Taking green tea extract and aspirin or
warfarin can increase the risk of bleeding.
- Discontinue using green tea extract 2 weeks before any surgical procedure. Green tea extract may decrease platelet aggregation.
- Green tea extract contains caffeine, which may produce a
variety of symptoms including restlessness, nausea, headache, muscle
tension, sleep disturbances, and rapid heartbeat.
Lipoic Acid
- Consult your doctor before taking lipoic acid if you have diabetes
and glucose intolerance. Monitor your blood glucose level frequently.
Lipoic acid may lower blood glucose levels.
NAC
- NAC clearance is reduced in people who have chronic liver disease.
- Do not take NAC if you have a history of kidney stones (particularly cystine stones).
- NAC can produce a false-positive result in the nitroprusside test for ketone bodies used to detect diabetes.
- Consult your doctor before taking NAC if you have a history of
peptic ulcer disease. Mucolytic agents may disrupt the gastric mucosal
barrier.
- NAC can cause headache (especially when used along with nitrates) and gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea and diarrhea.
Milk Thistle
- Consult your doctor before taking milk thistle with tranquilizers
such as Haldol, Serentil, Stelazine, and Thorazine. Milk thistle
combats the effect of tranquilizers.
- Do not combine milk thistle with the blood pressure medication Regitine. Milk thistle combats the effect of Regitine.
Phosphatidylcholine
- Phosphatidylcholine can cause increased salivation, a metallic
taste, headache, drowsiness, and gastrointestinal symptoms such as
nausea and diarrhea.
SAMe
- Consult your doctor before taking SAMe if you have bipolar
disorder. See your doctor frequently if you take SAMe and you have
bipolar disorder.
- Consult your doctor before taking SAMe if you take
antidepressants. See your doctor frequently if you take SAMe in place
of or in addition to antidepressants.
- Consult your doctor before taking SAMe if you have cancer.
Nucleic acid methylation patterns may change in people who have cancer
and take SAMe.
- Do not take SAMe if you are undergoing gene therapy.
- SAMe can cause anxiety, hyperactive muscle movement, insomnia,
hypomania, and gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea and diarrhea.
Selenium
- High doses of selenium (1000 micrograms or more daily) for prolonged periods may cause adverse reactions.
- High doses of selenium taken for prolonged periods may cause
chronic selenium poisoning. Symptoms include loss of hair and nails or
brittle hair and nails.
- Selenium can cause rash, breath that smells like garlic, fatigue, irritability, and nausea and vomiting.
Vitamin C
- Do not take vitamin C if you have a history of kidney stones or of
kidney insufficiency (defined as having a serum creatine level greater
than 2 milligrams per deciliter and/or a creatinine clearance less than
30 milliliters per minute.
- Consult your doctor before taking large amounts of vitamin C
if you have hemochromatosis, thalassemia, sideroblastic anemia, sickle
cell anemia, or erythrocyte glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD)
deficiency. You can experience iron overload if you have one of these
conditions and use large amounts of vitamin C.
Vitamin E
- Consult your doctor before taking vitamin E if you take warfarin (Coumadin).
- Consult your doctor before taking high doses of vitamin E if you have a vitamin K deficiency or a history of liver failure.
- Consult your doctor before taking vitamin E if you have a
history of any bleeding disorder such as peptic ulcers, hemorrhagic
stroke, or hemophilia.
- Discontinue using vitamin E 1 month before any surgical procedure.
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