I have been under ALOT of stress recently, and someone recommended some OTC St. John's Wort tablets. They are supposed to calm you down I guess. Different websites say different things about having "adverse effects". Any ideas?

Talk to a pharmacists or your doctor.  St. John's Wort can react with medications adversely.  They will want to know what medications you are on.

Totally with Janet

St John's Wort interacts with a lot of different medications. It is one to avoid if you are on any other medication. Seek professional advice, it can be nasty.

Cindy

The mechanism of St. John's Wort isn't known, but many speculate that it acts like a toned-down, classic antidepressant (like Prozac).  While that doesn't scream "don't take this with estrogen," it does give you a hint that it probably isn't going to do you any good when used just when you're stressed out.  Antidepressants take a prolonged, continuous use to work their magic.  Additionally, St. John's Wort is known to change the rate at which your body metabolizes many, many drugs (changing how effective they are).

However, I'm not a doctor, and if you're concerned about it, you should ask one!  Just remember that OTC doesn't always mean safe.

I was actually just with my psychologist today and he recommended St. John's Wort, among other things to manage my temporary depression.

Estrogen and St. John's Wort don't have any interactions so far as I know (but I'm not a doctor), it may or may not be relevant but I have heard that spironolactone can decrease the effectiveness of antidepressants. Seeing as St. John's Wort behaves like a mild antidepressant, it's probably going to have that same interaction.

If you're on other psychotropic medication, the interactions with St. John's Wort can be very dangerous. For example, mixing it with a pharmaceutical antidepressant can in some cases cause serotonin syndrome. Same goes for ADHD medication or basically any drug that tinkers with your serotonin levels.

A safer alternative that might accomplish something similar could be 5-HTP or tryptophan supplements. Also recommended were B-Complex vitamins.

Thanks ladies! I think I do need to see a doctor sooner than later. Well at least I got my recent bloodwork results back and everything was A-OK!