Maximizing The Benefits of Drugs

Consult with your doctor about prescription drugs is very important. In addition to side effects, it's good to get asked about abstinence which must be executed for drug worked well in the body.

Combining the consumption of drugs with certain foods can make the system work the drug was not optimal.

In fact, the drugs work could disappear so that the body seemed to require larger doses can be harmful to health. The key is to ask your doctor about potential drug interactions with daily menu that you consume.

Alder describes some foods that may cause negative interactions when taken with drugs, such as:

Fruit juice
Grapefruit contains a compound that prevents furanokumarin enzymes in the gut working properly. This compound is responsible for keeping foreign objects out of our body.

This causes more drug is absorbed, effectively doubling or even tripling the dose in some cases.

In addition to grapefruit, do not consume grapefruit juice if you are taking antiarrhythmics drugs to treat abnormal heart rhythms, antidepressants, antihistamines to treat allergies, calcium channel blockers to treat hyper-tension, statins to lower cholesterol, or anti-seizure medication.

Foods containing milk
Bind calcium in milk foods with antibiotics tetracycline and minocycline. Usually, there is the cure for skin conditions like acne infection and cystitis. Antibiotics are joined with minerals, forming an insoluble mass in the intestines that can not be absorbed into the body.

Drinking just half a liter of milk alone can reduce the effectiveness of antibiotics 80 percent. Calcium can also interfere with alendronate, osteoporosis drugs, because drug binding and prevent its absorption. And remember, do not eat foods containing milk when taking these drugs prior to two hours.

Food Fermentation
Fermented foods like cheese contain high concentrations of tyramine and can cause a 'cheese syndrome'. Tyramine react with the drug class of antidepressants called monoamine oxidase inhibitors, or MAOIs. The reaction that can trigger high blood pressure at the level of danger. Besides cheese, tyramine also found in pork, bananas, yeast extract, chocolate and soy products.

Meat
Patients with asthma should avoid the roast because the carbon compounds in it to prevent asthma medications work well. Carbon compounds also trigger asthma attacks regardless of the drug consumed, and the meat is charred should be avoided.

Vegetables

Green vegetables high in vitamin K, which promotes blood clotting. These include spinach, cabbage and green tea. Vitamin K is also found in red meat. When combined with blood thinning medication such as Warfarin, will neutralize the drug efficacy. Vitamin K is very strong, there are even cases of patients taking the cabbage soup with certain drugs, to develop thrombosis or pulmonary embolism.

Fiber foods
Foods high in fiber can slow the absorption of many drugs including digoxin, which is used to regulate an irregular heartbeat, diabetes drugs like metformin, and cholesterol-lowering statins. Fibrous foods will bind and prevent absorption of drugs in the body. Do not eat foods containing fiber within two hours after taking the drug is a wise action.

Alcohol
Alcohol interacts with many drugs and increase the likelihood of side effects such as vomiting, stomach bleeding and low blood pressure. Combining alcohol with antidepressants such as fluoxetine, or with anti-anxiety drugs like benzodiazepines, can result in loss of sleep, even consciousness.

Multivitamins
Many minerals in high concentrations can interact with various medications. In particular, magnesium, zinc, iron, and calcium can bind certain drugs, including antibiotics, which can prevent absorption.