Can Chlorophyll Affect My Birth Control?
Celery juice is so 2020—it’s all about chlorophyll now. If you’ve opened TikTok recently, you’ve probably seen health and wellness accounts using a little dropper to transform a plain glass of water into a swirling, dark green mystery drink. Fans of the green drink say that it’s cleared up their skin, reduced bloating, and oxygenated blood, among other alleged health benefits.
But what exactly is chlorophyll and, more importantly, can it have an effect on your birth control? Here’s what the experts have to say.
What is chlorophyll?
Chlorophyll is a naturally occurring pigment found in plants—it’s what makes plants green. And if you hear the word “chlorophyll” and find yourself transported back to fifth grade science, you’re probably remembering that chlorophyll plays a major role in photosynthesis, the process by which plants transform light into energy.
What they don’t tell you on TikTok, though, is that the liquid chlorophyll used to make those mesmerizing drinks is actually a semisynthetic version of the pigment called chlorophyllin. While totally natural chlorophyll will likely be broken down in the body before your gut has fully absorbed it (making it pretty ineffective), chlorophyllin is the water-soluble version of chlorophyll. It’s made by blending sodium and copper salts with chlorophyll, and that’s supposed to make it easier for your body to absorb.
What are the benefits of chlorophyll?
Let’s get one thing straight first: there is *not* a ton of research on the benefits of chlorophyll, and of the research that is out there, results are pretty mixed about whether chlorophyll actually boosts health in the way viral videos seem to suggest. So, take these findings with a dose of healthy skepticism.
Skin healing and acne treatment: Chlorophyll has antioxidants, which have many anti-inflammatory and immune-boosting benefits. Because of this, research has suggested that chlorophyll might help with skin healing by reducing inflammation and bacterial growth in skin wounds. Along those same lines, chlorophyll might also help treat acne.
A healthy gut: The anti-inflammatory oxidants in chlorophyll could help support a healthy gut by aiding digestion and speeding up metabolism. (And we know that gut health is super important in supporting your reproductive health, too.)
Lowering the risk of cancer: This one’s a little blurrier. While research suggests that taking chlorophyllin could reduce the risk of liver cancer or other cancers caused by environmental circumstances, those same benefits are likely to come just from eating your veggies; plus, the research is limited on what chlorophyll does specifically to treat and reduce the risk of cancer, and there’s just not enough research out there.
Does chlorophyll affect birth control?
Ah, the question you’ve all been waiting for. We took it straight to our clinical team of pharmacists for this one, and here’s what they said:
“Since [chlorophyll] is a natural product that is sold over the counter as an herbal product, chlorophyll has not been tested or evaluated by the FDA. As a result, no studies have been done that specifically clinically evaluate its interaction with birth control. Based off of the natural product Chlorophyll, that is found in nature, it does not have an interaction with FDA approved birth control products.”
So, while there’s not been any *official* research, we can draw the reasonable conclusion that chlorophyll does not interact with FDA-approved birth control products. That’s because chlorophyll is found so abundantly in the green veggies you eat every day, from spinach to asparagus to arugula and more; if there WAS an interaction between chlorophyll and hormonal birth control, we’d likely have found it already. So go ahead, and mix your green drink with confidence—your birth control is good to go.
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