Use and Potential Risks of Herbal Products & Supplements in the Elderly

Halit Güner ORHANa , Ş. Remzi ERDEMa

aBaşkent University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Medical Pharmacology, Ankara, Türkiye

ABSTRACT
Herbal products and dietary supplements are becoming popular, particularly among the elderly population. Unlike drugs, herbal products and dietary supplements are not subject to a detailed assessment process. Besides, they are not standardized in terms of contents, amounts, quality, and contamination risk, making them prone to pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic interactions with drugs. The use of herbal products and dietary supplements varies across countries due to differences in access to health services and medical traditions. This leads to different risks and clinical presentations of herbal-drug interactions. Many herbal products act as inducers or inhibitors for cytochrome P450 enzymes and cellular transporters and bear the risk of interactions with anticoagulants, antivirals, antihypertensives, antidiabetics, and antineoplastics whose metabolism is dependent on these mechanisms. For this reason, clinicians should be aware of the risks of herbal-drug interactions and protect geriatric patients from adverse reactions that may lead to serious clinical outcomes.
Keywords: Herb-drug interactions; herbal medicine; dietary supplements; geriatric

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