Can I Take Griffonia with St. Johnswort?
Answered by: Conrad Richter
Question from: Diane
Posted on: August 10, 2000

I checked out your new products and noticed griffonia. Since it works on serotonin, can I take it as well as an MAO inhibitor like St. Johnswort?

We have no information on whether griffonia interacts with St. Johnswort. Some authors say that St. Johnswort should not be taken with pharmaceutical MAO-inhibitors. Griffonia is not a MAO-inhibitor; instead it feeds the seratonin pool directly.

Also, have you ever heard of people getting ill eating cheddar cheese and/or yeast bread while taking St. Johnswort? I’ve been feeling quite ill for the past 3 days – headache, dizziness – and have not been watching out for these dietary restrictions while taking 900 mgs. of St. Johnswort per day?

We have not heard of St. Johnswort interacting with cheese and bread.

I know that the literature says to watch out, but my medical doctor says there’s no problem – she didn’t even know that it’s an MAO inhibitor, because she heard it acts more like Prozac, which is an SSRI.

We have addressed the issue of contraindications for St. Johnswort before. In the Q&A section of our website, search for "john" and then select the article "St John’s Wort Contraindications".

I don’t know who else to ask these questions to, as most of the thousands of sites on the internet are from businesses wishing to sell their St. Johnswort products.

If you know of a site where I can get unbiased information on using my own, please let me know.

We like to think that the information in the Q&A section of our website is unbiased. Most the questions have been answered by an independent, trained herbalist, Susan Eagles.

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