These things might be messing with the effectiveness of your birth control and you have no idea.
Hormone-based birth control includes things like IUDs, rings, patches, and the widely
used pill, which is what we’ll focus on this episode.
It comes in different forms but the ones you probably know are combined oral contraceptives,
which use a combination of estrogens, like ethinylestradiol, and a progestogen, like
progesterone.
But there are things out there that will mess with those hormones, meaning SURPRISE BABY,
or dangerous side effects.
So, if you’re on the pill, what should steer clear of?
At some point maybe you heard that eating grapefruit or drinking grapefruit juice could
make the pill less effective.
Truth is, grapefruit juice can affect hormone levels, but there’s no evidence that it
increases your chances of getting pregnant.
So, in a study done with menopausal women grapefruit juice was shown to increase the
ethinylestradiol in their system.
Normally ethinylestradiol is broken down by enzymes in your body called cytochrome P450
3A4--quite a mouthful--but grapefruit contains organic compounds called furanocoumarins that
block their activity, and this causes ethinylestradiol to build up.
When you’re on the pill you’re already introducing more ethinylestradiol into your
system.
So, there are some claims that combining grapefruit juice with the pill can make you feel sick
or nauseous.
Because the amount of that CYP3A4 enzyme in one person’s intestine may not be the same
as in someone else’s, these side-effects are definitely not a “one-size-fits-all”
thing and more research needs to be done before any big claims are made.
So activated charcoal is pretty hip these days--you’ve probably seen it advertised
in toothpastes, face masks, maybe some soaps, but now it’s even making its way into stuff
we eat, marketed as a “detoxer.”
Activated charcoal is a form of carbon that has been super-heated to create tiny, tiny
pores that increase its surface area.
By a lot.
The surface area of one gram of activated charcoal can cover an area greater than 3,000
square meters--over half of an American football field.
These tiny pores make activated charcoal an incredible adsorber--meaning tons of different
compounds will stick to it.
And it actually has some legitimate uses, like in the early stages of a drug overdose,
because it can adsorb a range of drugs, keeping someone’s stomach from absorbing them.
But all that activated charcoal in your detox smoothie is (a) probably just adsorbing pureed
peach and (b) unless you’re literally having an overdose, there are no toxins in your gut
that need to be de...toxed.
So if you’re drinking activated charcoal it might keep that birth control from getting
into your blood.
Although there isn’t yet /direct evidence for this, we at Reactions ask: why put yourself
at risk for a silly health fad?
St. John’s Wort isn’t FDA approved, but in the US, it’s an over the counter supplement
that people use to treat depression and, in other parts of the world, it’s widely prescribed.
St. John’s Wort is made up of many different compounds, but the compound thought to act
as an antidepressant is hyperforin.
Hyperforin blocks reuptake of “feel good” neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin,
keeping that “happy” buzz going, but it also increases the activity of CYP3A4--the
same enzyme that grapefruit decreases the activity of.
So opposite to grapefruit, St. John’s Wort clears estrogens from your system.
This stimulates follicle growth and ovulation, which increases your risk of getting pregnant.
Let’s call it what it really is: a laxative.
In recent years social media has been flooded with detox tea promotions by celebrities and
“influencers.”
But here’s what’s up: they’re selling you a serious case of diarrhea, and what you’re
losing is water weight.
These teas usually contain sennosides, often just referred to as senna.
Why senna works so well as a laxative is not totally clear but it’s thought to both increase
contraction and fluid secretion in your large intestine.
Diarrhea can cause a whole range of things like dehydration, nausea, and fever, and...can
keep you from absorbing hormones in the pill.
If you’ve had diarrhea for more than a 24 hour period don’t count on your birth control
being effective.
Also… go to the hospital.
And, finally, smoking.
It is well established that smoking ups your likelihood of having a stroke, and that increased
likelihood is associated with a bunch of things that make your blood clot, including fibrinogen.
Fibrinogen is a clotting protein, and when it’s acted on by an enzyme called thrombin,
it polymerizes--forming a larger molecule that works with other cells in your immune
system to create a clot.
The more clotting there is the more likely you are to have a stroke.
A combination of the pill and smoking is hypothesized to put a woman at greater risk for stroke,
because on its own the pill has been shown to ever-so-slightly increase your risk.
That being said, that increase is incredibly small because the incidence of stroke in reproductive-age
women is already very, very, low--around 1 in 100,000.
So unless stroke is common in your family, it’s a risk that shouldn’t keep you up
at night.
Although this list is a good place to start, other things like certain antibiotics, and
anti-seizure meds can mess with your oral contraceptives.
Remember -- we’re a YouTube channel, not a doctor -- so go talk to yours to make sure
you’re not putting yourself, or the effectiveness of your birth control, at risk.
See ya next week.