Commn Food and Drug Interactions

Taking my medicine is part of my every day life. As I get older they seem to add another pill for every ailment. When prescribed a new medication it is best to know a bit about it. One thing to check out is what to avoid due to interactions. The doctor or pharmacist should warn you not to eat and drink certain foods, it is always a wise idea to do your own investigation as well. The top 3 most commonly interactions of food to medication include:

Grapefruit Juice
can interact with medication in many different ways. Cholesterol lowering statins is a drug that grapefruit juice interacts with. The body also can metabolize drugs abnormally resulting in higher than normal blood levels of the drug. Drugs that can cause this include antihistamines, blood pressure drugs, thyroid replacement drugs, birth control, stomach acid blocking drugs, and cough suppressants. When taking medications that grapefruit juice reacts with it is best to abstain from grapefruit juice.

Green Leafy Vegetables
Coumadin or warfarin that are prescribed as blood thinners can be decreased in clotting ability if too much green leafy veggies are consumed. Wait!!!! do not abstain from the green leafy veggies yet, just eat the greens in consistent amounts no increase or decrease in intake.

Black Licorice 

A heart medication, digoxin, can be greatly enhanced leading to improper beating of heart when black licorice is consumed. The reason is that the ingredient glycrrhiza found in black licorice can deplete the body of potassium causing increased retention in sodium. High blood pressures can also be altered by decreased amounts just like coumadin and black licorice could lead to body's clotting increase. Black licorice refers to the natural black licorice not artificially flavored black licorice. 

Salt substitutes 

Those taking ACE inhibitors for high blood pressure should be careful with salt substitute. Most salt substitutes decrease sodium and add potassium which decreases the ability for the medications to work. The result may be heart failure as well as increase in blood potassium levels.