
Despite what Mary Poppins said, a spoonful of sugar may not be the best thing to take your medication with.
What you eat and drink can affect the way medications work — and medications can also change the way your body uses certain foods. These food-drug interactions can:
- Prevent a medicine from working the way it should
- Cause a side effect from a medicine to get worse
- Cause a new side effect
But it’s not just food — alcohol, caffeine, and other vitamins and supplements can affect how medicines work. Every time you use a medicine, carefully follow the information on the label and directions from your doctor or pharmacist.
Possible Side Effects
Take a look at these possible interactions that over-the-counter medicines, food, and alcohol can have with some common generic prescriptions. (Don’t see your medication listed here? Search the Drug Interactions Checker.)
Multivitamins and dairy products1,3,6
Drugs |
Food |
Interaction |
Recommendation |
---|---|---|---|
Certain thyroid medications:
|
Dairy/calcium products, this may include some multivitamins |
Decreased absorption, drug will not work as well |
Take on empty stomach ½ – 1 hour before eating |
Certain antibiotics:
|
Dairy products/calcium products, this may include some multivitamins |
Decreased absorption, drug will not work as well |
Avoid taking with dairy products. Separate by at least 2 hours |
Leafy green vegetables/vitamin K3
Drugs |
Food |
Interaction |
Recommendation |
---|---|---|---|
Certain blood thinners:
|
Spinach, kale, broccoli, cabbage, etc. |
Doesn’t thin the blood as intended, which increases the risk of blood clots |
Consume a steady amount of vegetables so warfarin dose can be adjusted to fit diet |
Cranberry juice |
Thins the blood more than intended, which increases the risk of bleeding |
Avoid cranberry juice |
Grapefruit juice2
Drugs |
Food |
Interaction |
Recommendation |
---|---|---|---|
Certain drugs such as statins:
|
Grapefruit juice |
Slows statin metabolism, which increases the likelihood of having side effects |
Don’t drink more than 1 quart of grapefruit juice a day |
Alcohol11,4
Drugs |
Food |
Interaction |
Recommendation |
---|---|---|---|
Antihistamines:
|
Alcohol |
Increases drowsiness |
Avoid alcohol |
Acetaminophen |
Alcohol |
Increases risk of liver damage |
Avoid alcohol |
NSAIDs such as:
|
Alcohol |
Increase risk of stomach upset/bleed |
Avoid alcohol |
Herbal supplements1,5
Herbal Products |
Drugs |
Interaction |
Recommendation |
---|---|---|---|
Gingko Biloba
|
Warfarin |
Increase risk of bleeding |
Avoid while taking warfarin |
St. John’s wort |
Oral contraceptives
|
St John’s wort can increase metabolism of these drugs |
Avoid St. John’s wort |
To help ensure your prescriptions have a chance to work as intended, always follow the directions and be sure to talk to your doctor, pharmacist, or other health care professionals if you have any questions.
This article was originally published on LinkedIn.
1 Avoid Food-Drug Interactions: A guide from the National Consumers League and U.S. Food and Drug Administration. S. Food and Drug Administration.
2 Grapefruit Juice and some Drugs Don’t Mix. S. Food and Drug Administration. [Online] Available at https://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm292276.htm [Accessed 9 Nov 2017].
3 Bushra R, Aslam N, Khan AY. Food-Drug Interactions. Oman Medical Journal. 2011;26(2):77-83. doi:10.5001/omj.2011.21.
4 Metronidazole. Lexi-Drugs. Available at: https://online.lexi.com/lco/action/doc/retrieve/docid/patch_f/1798773# [Accessed 10 Nov. 2017].
5 Herb-Drug Interactions. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. [Online] Available at https://nccih.nih.gov/health/providers/digest/herb-drug [Accessed 13 Nov 2017].
6 Hulisz, Darrell. Food-Drug Interaction. U.S Pharmacist. 2007;32(3)93-98. [Online] Available at https://www.uspharmacist.com/article/fooddrug-interactions [Accessed 13 Nov 2017].