Dangerous
Food and Medication Combinations
Your favorite foods could
be messing with your medications. If you want to avoid potentially dangerous
combinations, take a look at this list of common medication-food interactions
to make sure your diet is in the clear. However, since this is not a complete
list, you should also always ask your doctor if you should avoid any particular
foods, drinks or supplements specific to your medication regimen.
Be careful if you take statins. Statins such as simvastatin, atorvastatin and pravastatin are used to lower cholesterol. Eating or drinking a significant amount of grapefruit even several hours before or after taking these statins may accelerate side effects or, in severe cases, result in organ damage. Grapefruit may make levels of these drugs build up in the body, and could eventually cause liver damage or muscle breakdown that can result in kidney failure. With these medicines, it is safest to avoid grapefruit entirely but if you can't live without it, you can also ask your doctor about how much is safe – though you should never eat or drink more than a quart a day. Not all statins are affected by grapefruit. Several other medications including (but not limited to) the blood pressure drug nifedipine, the anti-anxiety drug buspirone and the antihistamine fexofenadine may also be affected by grape
Vitamin
K-Rich Foods and Garlic
Vitamin K is an important
component of the blood clotting process and high amounts of it may promote
blood clotting. Foods high in vitamin K include broccoli, cabbage, collard
greens, spinach, kale, turnip greens and Brussels sprouts. Garlic, in contrast,
may affect how platelets clump to form blood clots and may promote bleeding.Be careful if you take anti-coagulants. Certain anti-coagulants such as warfarin may be significantly affected by vitamin K-rich foods. If you are taking warfarin, it's important to be consistent every day with the amount of these foods that you eat so that you do not unintentionally make your blood more or less likely to clot – talk to your doctor about how much you should be eating. Similarly, talk to your doctor about how much garlic is safe to include in your diet, and avoid garlic supplements. Anticoagulants may also be affected by cranberry, ginger, glucosamine, ginseng and ginkgo.
Walnuts
Walnuts are high in
dietary fiber and on average contain 31% of your daily value of fiber per cup –
this is great for your digestion and cholesterol, but could potentially alter
the absorption of certain medications.
Be careful if you take
levothyroxine. Walnuts may decrease the absorption of levothyroxine, the
medication most commonly used to treat hypothyroidism. Other dietary fiber
supplements, as well as soybean flour, may also affect the function of
levothyroxine.Be careful if you take monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs). MAOIs such as phenylzine or tranylcypromine are a type of antidepressant medication. For people on MAOIs, eating many foods that contain a lot of tyramine could cause a sudden, highly dangerous increase in blood pressure. People taking MAOIs must follow a low-tyramine diet in consultation with their doctor. Tyramine is also not safe with certain antibiotics like linezolid.
Milk
or Dairy
Dairy products contain
calcium, which is good for healthy bones and a healthy nervous system, but may
affect medication absorption in the digestive system.Be careful if you take quinolone or tetracycline antibiotics. Quinolone antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin, norfloxacin and ofloxacin and tetracycline antibiotics such as doxycycline, minocycline and tetracycline may not be absorbed as well if you have recently ingested a calcium-rich food or drink. Avoid taking these medications within two hours of consuming dairy products.
Ref:
1.
http://www.doctoroz.com
2. http://www.care2.com
3.
http://www.mindbodygreen.com
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