Herbs, supplements and HIV

January 2005     View PDF     En español

What about side effects?

The biggest myth about complementary therapies is that they’re not toxic. Many people believe that because something is “natural” or sold over-the-counter that it doesn’t have side effects. To the contrary, many people with HIV experience side effects from complementary therapies.

For example, Chinese herbal remedies that contain deer antler can cause nausea, diarrhea and other stomach upset. One man stopped all his anti-HIV meds to try to determine which had upset his stomach and quality of life. It turned out that when he stopped his herbal therapy (with deer antler), his problems cleared. It wasn’t the anti-HIV drugs causing the problems at all.

High doses of vitamin C can cause severe diarrhea. Taking too many B-6 vitamins can lead to a complication that lands one in the hospital and excessive levels of vitamin A can be highly toxic to the liver. These examples illustrate the need to be cautious when adding large doses of vitamins to your diet.

Side effects from using herbs, vitamins and supplements may not reveal themselves immediately. It may take several weeks after starting a therapy for them to emerge. Keeping an accurate record of every therapy you take, including when you start and stop them, and documenting the onset of side effects may help sort out which one is causing the problem. (For a list of herbs with known side effects, read Herbal Side Effects Chart.)