Lycopene and medications.
Lycopene is in the Distil supplement database, evidence Grade C. The page below lists every medication we have explicitly assessed it against.
Lycopene is the red carotenoid pigment that gives tomatoes their colour, taken as an antioxidant with interest in prostate health. The evidence is Grade C for prostate health, and the grade is worth explaining: the prostate meta-analysis we cite pools observational studies of dietary tomato intake rather than trials of the supplement, and it found a modest association restricted to high tomato intake, with cooked tomato products carrying more of the signal than raw. No randomised trial of lycopene supplementation with a prostate outcome sits in our records, which is why this is a C and not a B. We no longer recommend it for cardiovascular support: neither paper we cite measures a cardiovascular outcome, and the LDL oxidation idea is a mechanism rather than a result. We do not recommend lycopene for skin either. Photoprotection is often claimed for it, but neither paper we cite measures a skin outcome. The usual dose is 15 to 30mg from tomato extract, and it is most relevant for men over 40 thinking about prostate health, where the food-first route, cooked tomatoes in the diet, matches the evidence at least as well as a capsule. No significant drug interactions are documented for it, which keeps it easy to add. The only notable side effect is a harmless orange skin tint at very high doses. A practical note: it absorbs better with a little dietary fat, much as cooked tomatoes deliver more than raw.
We have not yet completed an explicit assessment of medications for Lycopene in the Distil interactions database. We surface this distinction deliberately: the Distil checker tells you when we have explicitly assessed a pair and when we have not, because both are useful information. If you take Lycopene alongside a medication, the checker below will surface anything already in our database, and the missing-item form at the bottom of the page routes uncatalogued pairs into our next curation pass.
What this list does not say. Pairs not flagged here are not implicitly safe. They are either not yet in our database, or fall outside our inclusion scope. Use the checker below to surface any medication, and submit a missing item if you take something we have not catalogued.
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How we grade severity, choose what's in scope, and what we exclude.
Every call on this page is reasoned. We publish the full rubric for severity tiers, the medication inclusion logic, the evidence grades we accept, and what we deliberately leave out. About three thousand words. Worth reading once if you use this tool more than occasionally.
Read the full methodologyA full supplement review, built around you, not a generic stack.
The free checker answers one interaction question at a time. A Distil report reviews the bigger picture: your goals, diet, medications, current supplements and any blood results you provide, then shows what appears worth keeping, changing, adding or leaving out.
- what your diet already covers, so you are not adding a capsule for something food is already handling
- which evidence-graded compounds are worth considering for your goals, and which were considered but left out
- what to keep, change or stop from what you already take, plus the order to introduce anything new
- how your medications and complete supplement stack fit together, with daily timing and a clear point for reassessment
The interaction check is one section of the full report. You also get the reasoning behind each recommendation and the evidence references used.
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