pb555 asked
Is it safe to take Anxietex if I am taking medicine for high blood pressure, Metoprolol Succ Er 100 mg & Losartan Potassium 50 mg ?
Answer
I strongly advise against using this supplement if you are being treated for high blood pressure with prescribed medication. There are three issues that bring me to that conclusion.
Does Anxietex Contain Ingredients That Raise Blood Pressure?
First and most importantly, the ingredients this product claims to contain actually do have the potential to cause changes in your blood pressure or interactions with your medications. That alone is reason enough to not use it.
Supplements And Blood Pressure Medication
Secondly, this product is not a drug or medication, it's an herbal/dietary supplement. Supplements, in the United States, are entirely unregulated and unmonitored by agencies like the FDA or state consumer affairs divisions unless adverse reactions happen. That means there is no way to guarantee this product contains any of the ingredients listed on the label, that it doesn't contain unlisted ingredients or fillers, or that it was manufactured under sanitary conditions. Which brings me to my last issue...
Anxietex Marketing
That the website for this product/company is possibly the slickest, most carefully crafted bit of marketing I've ever seen. Now, normally I'd be all for a business putting in this level of effort to market their products. Except, in the case of supplement manufacturers, it generally serves less to educate or offer an actual healthcare service/product, and more to distract you from the fact that there is absolutely nothing to support the claims they make for their products.
Take a look at the website and you'll see them mention how they have their products tested by an independent laboratory...and then provide nothing to back that up. No data, no charts, not even the name of the laboratory. They don't even make the effort to cite some kind of scientific source for the stuff they're claiming, and instead rely on verbal tricks like passive voice (Ex. "Studies have shown..." -- what studies?) or misconstruing something as common knowledge that definitely isn't (Ex. - "It is well known that badgers are mad for peanut butter.").
Everything about their website -- the name ('Approved' Science); the stock photos of 'sciencey' looking people doing science stuff and gazing thoughtfully at charts; the red flashing "Only 10 bottles left on this offer! Act now!" banner that splashes across every page -- all of it is crafted to pressure you to not think and act fast before you realize you're shelling out $60 a month for a nicely packaged placebo.
Alternate Therapies
Keep your $60, and instead consider working with a counselor or therapist who specializes in cognitive behavioral therapy. This form of therapy has been demonstrated by actual scientific studies to be highly effective in helping people cope with and work through anxiety, depression, substance abuse disorders, and more.
CBT is based on the idea that our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are all interconnected and influence one another. A therapist can guide you through the technique of pausing and examining your thoughts and beliefs, and identifying how they may be generating unhelpful or undesired feelings and behaviors. It helps you to determine whether a belief is helpful or unhelpful, rational or irrational in a non-judgmental way, and then gives you the tools to dispute unhelpful beliefs and replace them with helpful ones. This is incredibly empowering, and will help you make decisions that keep you moving forward towards your goals.
Here's a link to an abstract (summary) of a meta-analysis of clinical trials on the efficacy of CBT in treating anxiety: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20599133
A meta-analysis is a study that examines all the available clinical trial results for a given topic, and uses that pool of information to draw more solid conclusions than any one trial could produce alone.
