The combination of food and medicine is a whole science. We reveal its main postulates.
PhD in Medicine, therapist
Do you wash down medicines with everything that is at hand: juices, tea, milk? Then do not be surprised if the effect of the treatment is zero or even negative. A careless attitude to taking medications can even lead to resuscitation!
The fact is that the components of the drugs interact with substances found in drinks and products. The result of such a “commonwealth” is deplorable: either the components of the drug are quickly excreted from the body and the effect of the drug comes to naught, or, on the contrary, the drug is not excreted, accumulates and a real overdose occurs.
* Milk, dairy products, yoghurts – and antibiotics, especially tetracyclines and quinolones for the treatment of infectious and sexual diseases. The result: reduced efficiency.
* St. John’s wort – and oral contraceptives, antidepressants, AIDS drugs. Result: no effect.
* Green vegetables rich in vitamin K (cabbage, lettuce, nettle, spinach) – and anti-thrombotic agents (neodecoumarin, plantane, dicumaril). Result: overdose.
* Bread, pasta – and antibiotics. Result: a 50% reduction in the effectiveness of drugs.
* Sweets – and sulfonamides. Result: slower absorption.
* Foods rich in protein (meat, fish, cheese, legumes) – and digitoxin, quinidine, cimetidine, theophylline, tetracycline. The result: reduced efficiency.
* Grapefoot juice – and antidepressants, oral contraceptives, antibiotics, cardiovascular drugs, Viagra and its analogues. Result: depression only intensifies, the risk of pregnancy does not decrease, and cardiovascular drugs and Viagra accumulate and can very sharply lower blood pressure, lead to palpitations, headaches.
* Cranberry juice – and warfarin (an anticoagulant). Result: overdose and bleeding in the gastrointestinal tract.
* Carbonated drinks – and antibiotics, sedatives, drugs for joints, antacids that reduce the acidity of the stomach. Result: reduced effect and irritation of the gastric mucosa.
* Spicy foods, citrus fruits – and aspirin. Result: damage to the mucous membrane of the gastrointestinal tract, pain in the stomach.
* Foods containing tyramine (cheese, eggs, liver, herring) – and nialamide, pyrazidol and other MAO inhibitors (psychotropic drugs). Result: overdose, hypertensive crisis, convulsions.
* Fish – and aspirin, thiamine. Result: Oily fish with aspirin increases the risk of bleeding; raw fish (sushi, sashimi, tartar) kills thiamine.
Milk is recommended to drink butadion, indomethacin, metronidazole, furadonin, corticosteroids, iodine preparations and vitamins A, D, E, K, and alkaline mineral water – sulfonamides, salicylates, aspirin. So that aspirin does not act so aggressively on the gastric mucosa, it can be washed down with rice water or jelly.
Do not drink coffee or tea tablets. Caffeine dramatically reduces the effectiveness of drugs, and in conjunction with oral contraceptives or sedatives can lead to insomnia, palpitations, agitation. The tannin in tea reduces the effects of all medications.