Three important words when taking medication: Read the label. Not only for how much to take or when, but also the warnings about what you can eat or drink. Failure to follow that advice can make the drug less effective and cause other physical problems.
In this edition of KERA's weekly consumer health series Vital Signs, David Adams, an ambulatory clinical staff pharmacist with Parkland Hospital, explained some of the most common food and drug interactions.
From David Adams interview, some common food and drug interactions:
Alcohol: Tylenol and alcohol are both metabolized in your liver. Too much Tylenol, too high doses of Tylenol for too long a time, can be rough on your liver. Just like alcohol can be rough on your liver. You never want to take both of them together.
Grapefruit Juice: Grapefruit and grapefruit juice is metabolized the same way as many medicines are. So if you’re drinking grapefruit juice or eating grapefruit, what could potentially happen is certain medicines could start to build up in your system and that could potentially be dangerous.
Green, leafy vegetables: With people who are taking blood thinners life Warfarin, Warfarin works by suppressing vitamin-K. Vitamin K is integral in the process of coagulation. Green, leafy vegetables are rich in vitamin K, so you’re working against that process. You want to keep the amount of green, leafy vegetables at a constant. You don’t want to not be eating any at all, and all of sudden you eat whole lot of green, leafy vegetables because that could work against Warfarin.
For more information:
FDA: Avoid Food and Drug Interactions
