Q: My uncle is 48 years old, he is hypertensive and weighs 106 kg. Can he take Lycored (Jagsonpal)? Can he take medicines like Diataal (USV) or Wisawit (Wisdom Pharma) along with Lycored? He becomes completely exhausted due to exertion.

A:Vitamins/minerals etc. should only be taken when there is documented deficiency. Even then only that agent has to be taken which is deficient. Multi-ingredient fixed-dose combinations have to be avoided. There is a wrong perception that excessive consumption of such agents is harmless because it leads to hypervitaminosis and impairs body's own ability to synthesize/utilise dietary vitamins. Besides there are over 17,000 pharma manufacturers in India that are totally unsupervised and produce over 40,000 medicines most of which are either banned or not permitted in advanced countries. No purpose will be served by consuming the products mentioned in your enquiry except that it will increase manufacturer's profits.