Natural Products: What They Are, How They Work, and What You Need to Know

When people talk about natural products, substances derived from plants, minerals, or animals used for health purposes. Also known as herbal remedies, they include everything from echinacea to fish oil, and millions use them daily hoping for relief without prescription drugs. But calling something "natural" doesn’t mean it’s harmless. Many of these products affect your body just like medicine—and they can clash dangerously with the drugs you’re already taking.

Take St. John’s Wort, a popular herb used for mild depression. It’s sold over the counter, but it can drop the levels of warfarin, birth control pills, and even some antidepressants like sertraline. That’s not a small risk—it can mean blood clots, unplanned pregnancy, or worse. Then there’s garlic supplements, often taken to lower cholesterol. They thin your blood too, and if you’re on blood thinners, that’s a recipe for bleeding. Even something as simple as green tea extract, used for weight loss and antioxidants, can stress your liver when mixed with certain medications.

These aren’t just theoretical risks. Real people end up in the ER because they didn’t know their turmeric pill was interfering with their blood pressure medicine. Or their ginkgo biloba made their glaucoma eye drops less effective. The truth is, natural products aren’t regulated like drugs. There’s no guarantee what’s in the bottle, how much is active, or whether it’s safe with your other meds. That’s why so many posts here focus on drug interactions—because knowing what your supplement might do to your prescription could save your life.

What you’ll find below isn’t a list of miracle cures. It’s a collection of real, practical stories about how natural products show up in medical cases—sometimes helping, often complicating. You’ll read about how certain herbs affect INR levels, how supplements can trigger hypoglycemia, and why some people with gout or epilepsy need to avoid specific plant extracts. These aren’t opinions. They’re observations from clinical experience, pulled from real patient cases. If you’re using any kind of herbal remedy, vitamin, or mineral supplement, you need to know what you’re mixing into your body. This isn’t about dismissing natural products—it’s about using them wisely.