If you’re on this website, you probably heard someone mention Moringa before.
Either you’ve read an article about its ability to cure or manage certain diseases, or you’ve watched a news segment raving about its nutritional profile, or you’ve saved an infographic on its curative properties on Pinterest.
All of the above claims are true, for the record; Moringa really is as healthy as bloggers, doctors, and health food sites say it is.
But nothing is uniformly good for everyone, and everyone’s health needs are a little different. In other words, you might be asking yourself:
Is there anyone who should not eat moringa?
While almost everyone can benefit from adding Moringa to their diet, you should definitely talk to a doctor before taking moringa if you’re taking medication for thyroid disorders, if you’re pregnant and already taking vitamin A supplements, or if you’re currently taking medication for lowering blood pressure or blood sugar.
A note: For the purposes of this article, we’ll assume that we’re talking only about Moringa leaves and drumsticks; in other words, the parts are most commonly eaten. While the seeds, flowers, and bark are technically edible, they can be dangerous if not prepared very specifically, or if taken in improper quantities. Therefore, we advise only eating Moringa leaves and drumsticks.
Want to know where to find the right gear to grow your Moringa? Or the right Moringa Product to buy? Check out our Buyer’s Guide, we review it all there!
If You’re Currently Taking Blood Sugar Meds…
One of the most common reasons people start researching Moringa is because of its ability to lower blood sugar. High blood sugar is not only near-synonymous with diabetes, but it can also cause its own host of problems. It can cause nerve and organ damage. It can cause headaches, hunger pangs, bloating, and blurred vision. High blood sugar can even lead to an increase in ketones (sort of like a type of acid), which can cause vomiting, shortness of breath, and even comas.
Researchers have conducted study after study regarding Moringa’s effect on diabetes. Every single one of those studies (both human, in vitro, and animal studies) concluded the same thing: Moringa can help lower blood sugar.
If you’re already taking medication to lower your blood sugar, though, Moringa can have an exacerbating effect. In other words, it can combine with your meds to lower your blood pressure way more than it should.
High blood sugar is dangerous. Low blood sugar can also cause a bunch of unpleasant and dangerous symptoms, like fatigue, anxiety, or even seizures.
If you’re currently taking blood sugar medication, talk to your doctor. They’ll be able to give you an idea about whether Moringa is safe to add to your diet. Until then, you shouldn’t eat Moringa.
…Or If You’re On Blood Pressure Meds
High blood pressure, or hypertension, can wreak havoc on your body. There’s a reason everyone from doctors to dentists to pharmacy techs at Walmart takes your blood pressure: because it’s one of the most important numbers in your life.
The effects of high blood pressure can run from the mildest, like sexual dysfunction, to the deadly: strokes, aneurysms, kidney failure, heart attacks, and more. It’s also basically an epidemic; in the United States alone, 1 in 3 adults have high blood pressure. Another third have pre-hypertension; not quite in the high blood pressure range, but higher than it’s supposed to be.
High blood pressure is a huge problem, and tens of millions of people in the U.S. take medicine to combat it.
We get it, everyone just wants to enjoy life.
Moringa lowers your blood pressure. It can lower it significantly, which is my millions around the world take it.
But when you combine Moringa with blood pressure medication, there’s a chance your BP may lower too much, and that can be dangerous as well.
We’re not saying don’t take it at all if you’re already on blood pressure meds. But first, speak to your medical practitioner. They’ll help you figure out whether it’s safe for you, or if you should not yet eat Moringa.
If You’re Pregnant and Taking Vitamin A Supplements
Vitamin A is incredibly important. It’s involved in immune function. It’s necessary for vision. Vitamin A is even integral to cell growth: without it just about all of your internal organs would stop working.
In fact, because Vitamin A is needed for those organs forming in the first place, you could make the argument that it’s necessary for life itself.
Vitamin A is necessary for fetal growth and for infant health, and deficiencies can result in higher rates of infant and mother mortality, eye disease, and slower development.
Luckily for us, you can find Vitamin A all over the place. Mangoes, cantaloupe, and peppers have Vitamin A.
Peppers, sweet potatoes, spinach–and yes: Moringa–have Vitamin A. Even dairy products like French vanilla ice cream or cheese have Vitamin A, albeit not as much of it as the fruits and veggies do.
The issue, however, arises when nervous parents, worried about vitamin deficiencies, start taking too many supplements. Vitamin A is necessary for healthy fetal development. Too much Vitamin A while pregnant, though, has actually been linked to birth defects. It can cause problems with a baby’s vision, heart, lungs–even skull.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends not taking Vitamin A supplements while pregnant. If–at the direction of a health care provider–you do anyway, you should absolutely not also eat Moringa or any other Vitamin A-heavy foods.
If You’re Currently Taking Thyroid Medication
By now, you’ve probably seen a pattern arise.
Moringa is genuinely a miracle food. It contains countless vitamins, nutrients, antioxidants, and minerals. It’s been linked to decreases in blood pressure, diabetes, anxiety, and even memory issues.
However, too much of a good thing–even a very good thing–can cause as many problems as a total lack can. The same is true of combining Moringa with thyroid medication.
Research suggests that Moringa can reduce hyperthyroidism; in this study, even a low dose worked to regulate it (and better than a higher dose, actually).
While Moringa’s effect on thyroid disorders hasn’t been studied as extensively as its effect on blood pressure or sugar, studies suggest that it works!
But if you’re already taking thyroid medication, Moringa can interact with it. What’s worse is we don’t currently have a lot of info about what that interaction might look like; there just haven’t been enough studies.
If you’re on Levothyroxine or some other type of thyroid meds, talk to your doctor. They’ll be the ones best equipped to tell you if you should or shouldn’t also eat Moringa.
Conclusion
For most people–even those among you who are taking some of the medications above–Moringa has the genuine potential to transform your life.
But we recommend talking to your doctor or healthcare practitioner before ever making any kind of large change to your life, and that’s especially true if you’re already taking medication Moringa might exacerbate.
Do your research. Explore our website. If you still have questions we don’t answer, ask us; we’ll do our best.
If you’d like to learn more about Moringa’s general nutrition properties, please check out our comprehensive introduction here.
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I am yet to see a doctor that will advise me on any supplements? Plenty of advice on safety of prescriptions that reads one of the side effects is death! I was on two of those till I stopped eating sugar and wheat. I sleep better taking moringa but nothing else is obvious yet. Been using it about 6 weeks now.