HER2 Support Group Forums - herceptin and St John's Wort

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herceptin and St John's Wort

Does anyone know if there is a contraindication to taking St Joh's Wort while receiving Herceptin?
I am 9 months post chemo and mid way through my 12 months of Herceptin and finding a low level depression. I have used SJW in the past with good results but had to stopp taking it when on chemo.

This is a good question. I have asked my oncologist about taking different herbs and supplements--green tea extract, tumeric, fish oil, omega 3, calcuim with D3 and a multi-vitamin. She sugggested I look at this website www.mskcc.com to find out. I haven't had much luck navigating. I don't take a lot of supplements and there are days I forget.
Dana

I came across this website in another forum. It is very negative towards alternatives. The url is http://www.virtualmedicalcentre.com/news.asp?artid=11662.

What it says about St John's Wort is below. Sorry I cant be of more help.

"One of the countries most widely consumed herbal remedies, St John’s Wort, is know to interact with virtually every prescription drug. It interacts with the enzymes that are responsible for drug metabolism and although there is no doubt that St John’s Wort works reasonably well as an antidepressant; its use would be strongly cautioned in anyone who is taking any prescription medications"

I can recommend a Naturopath named Dr. Dan Labriola... He wrote a book a few years ago called Complimentary Cancer Therapies which addresses the questions of supplements and herbs while you are in chemo/cancer treatment. I have referred to it MANY times regarding questions like this. He has not amended it for a few years, and there are some new meds and contraindications not adressed in the book, so I called his office in Seattle about 3 years ago and became a phone consult patient! He and his partners are really good at this stuff. He researches how herbs and supplements can affect the efficacy of our life-saving treatments. He does not believe in shunning chemo for natural treatment. He believes that chemo saves our lives and that very, very careful and well designed/disciplined supplementation regimens are also important. But without the info, we can easily take things that adversely affect our treatments, and that is the last thing that we want!