Not all supplements are super for your health.
In fact, in the wrong dose or combined with the wrong stuff, some supplements can actually do more damage than repair.
The rise of TikTok docs, pseudo sponsorships with influencers and gray market sales has led to an explosion of misinformation around dietary supplements — or the more concentrated forms of the vitamins and minerals we already get from food — and their long term efficacy and safety.
And medical doctors have taken note.
“The general principle emerging from the literature is that indiscriminate supplementation, particularly with isolated nutrients at high doses or in unbalanced combinations, may be more problematic than beneficial,” Dr. Jerold Fleishman, MD, emeritus chief of neurology at MedStar Franklin Square and associate neurology professor at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, recently told Parade.
“The safest approach remains obtaining nutrients through dietary patterns rather than supplements, with supplementation reserved for documented deficiencies under medical supervision.”
Without medical oversight, patients might accidentally get too much of a certain nutrient, to the point that it becomes toxic. And certain combinations in particular can wreak havoc on your brain, despite being otherwise mostly safe to use.
These nasty combos can result in anything from premature brain aging to memory loss and seizures.
While many of the following supplements can have benefits when administered on their own, you might want to leave the mixing and matching to your stylist. These are the supplement combinations doctors want you to be wary of.
1. 5-HTP + St. John’s wort
Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing.
Serotonin syndrome, a drug reaction resulting in a dangerous build-up of serotonin in the body, is associated with the improper use of certain supplements used to treat conditions like depression, including St. John’s wort and 5-HTP (also known as 5-Hydroxytryptophan).
While some serotonin is essential for cell health and brain functioning, too much can overwhelm the brain, according to Cedars-Sinai pharmacy specialist Chau Chu, and lead to complications.
On the mild end, that could look like shivering or diarrhea. On the severe end, however, the Mayo Clinic warns that patients could experience muscle rigidity, fever and seizures, and, if left untreated, death.
Memorial Sloan Kettering warns that 5-HTP should be “avoided if taking other supplements” such as St. John’s wort or SAM-e, another supplement sometimes used to treat mental health disorders, “because these products may also affect serotonin levels.”
2. Vitamin E + fish oil or ginkgo
While all three of these supplements can be individually beneficial for overall brain health — as well as skin and eye health in the case of vitamin E, and heart health in the case of fish oil — together they can have the opposite effect.
Each of the three contains anticoagulant properties. When combined, they could thin the blood to the point of causing a hemorrhagic stroke, which can contribute to vascular cognitive impairment (a form of accelerated brain aging) and chronic memory issues.
Dr. Rob Nawaz Kahn, a neurologist, recently explained the dangers of combining fish oil and gingko in a supplement “stack” to Parade.
“The worst combinations are the ones that raise bleeding risk or trigger dangerous stimulation,” he said. “A common risky stack is high dose fish oil plus ginkgo plus garlic or turmeric, especially if the person also takes aspirin, clopidogrel, warfarin or apixaban, because it can increase bruising and bleeding risk.”
The Cleveland Clinic also states that overuse of vitamin E supplements is dangerous “because your body stores vitamin E in your tissues and liver and doesn’t eliminate extra amounts through your pee.”
An overdose of vitamin E, more than 1,000 milligrams (mg) per day, could lead to brain bleeds.
3. Copper + Zinc
High-dose zinc can interfere with copper absorption because the two nutrients are absorbed by the same part of the gut, according to Pieter Cohen, MD, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Copper deficiencies are linked to white matter degeneration, which causes cognitive decline (memory loss, slow processing), motor dysfunction (imbalance, gait issues) and emotional changes.
But the answer is not to add copper supplements to your zinc regimen. It’s to lower your zinc intake and keep it within “a normal daily dose,” Cohen recently told Health.
Most people don’t need to take additional supplements because their bodies get enough of these nutrients, including zinc and copper, from their diets. But there may be specific cases where zinc and copper are prescribed together by a doctor.
4. Calcium + iron
Though many women in particular have been advised to boost their calcium and iron intake, the combination can be problematic for the brain.
Similar to the way zinc can interfere with copper absorption, calcium can do the same for iron when the two are taken together. Unstable iron levels bouncing from too little to too much can cause what one doctor recently described to Direct Message News as “metabolic noise,” or stress on the tissues of the brain.
This can lead to the gradual degradation of the brain’s elasticity, or what some neurologists are newly calling “supplement-induced accelerated aging.”
