To take a medication safely and effectively, it is important to follow your doctor or pharmacist's guidelines. This does not only appeal to the hours at which we should consume them, but our diet also influences the action of the drug. This is known as interactions between drugs and foods, since their combination can produce negative effects on the safety and effectiveness of the pharmacological treatment and on the nutritional status of the patient, as stated in an article from the National Health System.
Interactions between medications and foods, the effectiveness of the drug may be altered if it is ingested with certain foods. From the specialized portal Teva Farmacia they explain that the influence of diet on medical treatment can be bidirectional. That is, the food can affect the medicine and vice versa.
Some foods can reduce the effectiveness of a medication, hinder or delay its absorption, or even inhibit its effects. On the other hand, medications also influence the absorption of nutrients, especially in the case of long-term or chronic treatments, where effects such as poor digestion, loss of appetite or difficulty assimilating nutrients may occur. Taking everything into consideration, it is advisable to know which foods we should avoid while taking certain drugs, which are listed on the Teva Farmacia website.
