Medications

by JB
(CA)

Question:

Hi,

I am on several RX medications for various conditions and want to know if it safe to take olive leaf with them. Also I have stage 3 kidney failure and hbp. I have a bad cold with all the typical symptoms and was hoping to take the olive leaf for that.

Answer:
There is not much research available on drug interactions with olive leaf extract.
As a rule of thumb, olive leaf extract will affect the dosage of blood pressure and possibly to a smaller extent diabetes medication.
It is also a liver detox so one may have to be careful there. It is also a diuretic which may affect you in some way as you have kidney failure.
It would be wise to consult your doctor to find out if a diuretic will cause you problems. Depending on your particular case, there are quite a few ways in which it may help your condition so it would be great if you could give it a try.

The best approach is to try it out with something mild like olive leaf tea or organic olive leaf capsules containing only olive leaves, no concentrated extract. If these have no untoward reactions you can slowly step up the dose as necessary.

I think olive leaf could have excellent long term benefits for you, but again you don't want to make things worse so a word with your doctor would be in order.