Understanding how medications interact with vitamins

Technology, science and research are offering a personalization powerhouse at our fingertips, including products made specifically for us delivered to our doorsteps. We wear personal fitness trackers to track our steps, sleep and heart rates. Personal trainers design fitness routines made just for us. We understand that our family history, lifestyle choices and even genetics are predictive of our health needs and this information is integrated into our health care plans. But with all of this personalization, nutritional supplement options still deliver the same cookie-cutter solutions.

According to New Nutrition Business and its report “10 Key Trends in Food, Nutrition and Health 2017,” personalized nutrition is the next big nutrition movement, as people want individually tailored diets. When creating a personalized nutrition plan, it’s important to take into account holistic well-being; however, deciding what is truly right for you can be confusing.

“Personalized nutrition shouldn’t be taken lightly. It’s not a catchy-named pack of vitamins or nutrition plans curated from a few questions about how you want to feel; it needs to include everything that makes you unique, down to the medications prescribed by your doctor,” said Dr. Michael Roizen, original chief wellness officer at the Cleveland Clinic, co-author of the new book “Age-Proof: Living Longer without Running Out of Money or Breaking a Hip” and Vitamin Packs science advisory board member. “Technology is creating amazing advances in personalized nutrition, but it’s only as good as the data it can and the information you are willing to share.”

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Nearly 50 percent of the U.S. population is taking prescription medications, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and 68 percent of Americans are taking dietary supplements, based on Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN) estimates.

With several new personalized vitamin subscription services launching, it’s important to select one that takes into account your diet, physical fitness, sleep patterns, lifestyle habits and family health history as well as medication use. Some drugs can deplete nutrients while others add nutrients to the body. One subscription service, Vitamin Packs, delivers customized vitamins and nutritional supplements in daily packs based on what it learns during a free nutritional assessment. Its technology cross-examines more than 650 possible medication interactions and recommends only what an individual’s body needs.

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