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You might not know this, but most dietary supplements are not Food and Drug Administration-approved and some could be hazardous to your health. A new Facebook post from pharmacy student Otoki Sicily is going viral for a very important reason — to warn people about the potentially life-threatening dangers of taking herbal supplements with other medications. What she has to say is super important and could save your life. The post can be found here, but be warned, it contains strong language. In the post, Sicily explains that she has been on clinical rotations at a hospital for the last seven weeks, and part of her responsibility includes going through the medical histories of hospital admissions. Basically, when anyone checks into the hospital overnight or during her shift, she needs to evaluate the medications the patient is currently taking, including when they last took each medication. The evaluation is especially important for patients who are going to be administered certain drugs or undergo specific procedures. “So far, I've had at least one patient a week who uses MLM products,” she wrote. MLM stands for "multilevel marketing"— also called pyramid selling — and is a system in which people make money off the products they sell, as well as a portion of the profits generated by other sellers they've recruited. Though Sicily didn't name any specific MLM products in her Facebook post, popular MLM companies that sell supplements include Isagenix, Amway and Herbalife. “They almost always have a bunch of plant extracts in them, which means we have no way of knowing what they might interact with on their current med list or any agents we may use in the hospital," Sicily continues. She says it takes a lot of time to look up every ingredient, especially because many MLM companies will use less-common names for plants, making it harder to look them up. “Example: Lady excitedly started babbling about these 3 drinks that she takes every day when I asked about herbal supplements. One of the drinks contained ginseng, which can cause diuretic resistance and severe body edema ,” she continued. “Guess what some of the patient's problems were. Yup, severe edema that wasn't responding very well to the IV diuretics we were giving her. Don't get me started on the atrocious amount of caffeine and stimulants, and how those were impacting her blood pressure and heart rate.”In this scenario, she was successful in informing the care team, which adjusted her therapy accordingly. However, she points out that many hospitals do not have sufficient staff on hand to research every single ingredient. “The only reason that happened was because, as a student, my job during my unpaid rotations is to LEARN. So I was able to spend 30+ minutes looking to every herbal/plant extract in these 3 MLM drinks, summarize how they would impact her current meds and what hospital meds we may want to avoid,” she explained. “Actual practicing pharmacists in this hospital usually don't have that kind of time to do a deep dive, so it would normally be missed unless it happened to fall in their lap during a rare lull.”She also explained she believes products from MLM are the biggest offenders because they are "constantly popping up with new products and discontinuing old ones," which makes it less likely to appear in a database. Unfortunately, these MLM products target vulnerable populations, including people living with chronic illnesses, and encourage them to stop taking their medications, Sicily says. According to the FDA, dietary supplements are regulated as food — not drugs — despite the fact that many of them contain “strong ingredients that have strong biological effects which may conflict with a medicine you are taking or a medical condition you may have.” The FDA also warns that “hidden drugs are also sometimes falsely marketed as dietary supplements,” putting you at greater risk. While it is ultimately your decision on whether to consume unregulated health products, Sicily's post — as well the FDA's warning — should encourage you to always speak to your doctor or health care professional before introducing anything new to your diet or treatment plan, even if it's plant based.