NEWS: Foods and medicines that don't mix: National Consumers League

[janet paterson <janet313@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Campaign aims to warn consumers about foods and medicines that don't mix

WASHINGTON (November 19, 1998 01:45 a.m. EST ) -- Like 
grapefruit juice? Check your medicine cabinet before drinking it. It tops a 
list of everyday foods that can cause side effects, even life-threatening 
problems, when taken together with certain medications.

Concerned that Americans don't know that foods sometimes interact dangerously 
with medicine, the National Consumers League began a campaign Wednesday to tell 
consumers exactly what foods and drugs do not mix.

"You open up any bathroom cabinet in America and you'll see the same thing: 
medicine, and lots of it," said Linda Golodner, president of the National 
Consumers League. But eat the wrong food with certain medicines, she said, and 
"you may end up in the emergency room."

Some 85 million Americans use prescription drugs, and countless others use 
over-the-counter medicines. Doctors are supposed to warn patients what drugs 
not to mix. But potential problems from mixing medicine with food, vitamins, 
even caffeine, aren't as well publicized.

So the consumers league, with help from the Food and Drug Administration, 
published a detailed list of foods certain patients should avoid. Among them:

--Never drink grapefruit juice less than two hours before or five hours after 
taking heart drugs called calcium channel blockers, like Procardia. The mix 
sometimes kills.

--Grapefruit juice taken with cyclosporin, which fights organ rejection in 
transplant recipients, can cause confusion and trembling.

--High doses of Vitamin E thin blood. Taken by heart patients on the popular 
blood thinner Coumadin, the mix increases the risk of serious bleeding.

--Coumadin users also shouldn't splurge on foods high in Vitamin K, like 
broccoli, spinach and turnip greens, which reduce the drug's effectiveness.

--Antidepressants called MAO inhibitors can cause a potentially fatal blood 
pressure rise when taken with foods high in the chemical tyramine, such as 
cheese and sausage. [note from jp: this does not apply to selegiline; see pd 
list archives]

--Drinking coffee or colas with certain antibiotics such as Cipro or the ulcer 
drugs Tagamet, Zantac and Pepcid can increase caffeine levels, causing the 
jitters and stomach irritation.

--Don't overload on bananas or take potassium supplements with heart drugs 
called ACE inhibitors, such as Capoten and Vasotec. It can cause harmful 
potassium buildup.

--Too much caffeine increases the dose of theophylline, a bronchodilator, 
causing nausea, palpitations or seizures.

--Grapefruit juice should never be taken with antihistamines, either 
prescription versions such as Claritin and Allegra or over-the-counter types 
such as Benadryl. It can cause serious heart problems.

While grapefruit juice has the bad reputation, eating grapefruit may cause the 
same interactions, said Michael Bottorff, a University of Cincinnati pharmacist.

Researchers have found that grapefruit juice, for unknown reasons, enables 
drugs to be absorbed into the body more easily. While this might eventually 
lead to smaller drug dosages, the problem addressed Wednesday was the 
possibility of overdoses when people take the prescribed amount of 
pharmaceuticals.

No one knows how often mixing drugs with the wrong foods causes problems, said 
doctor Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA's drug division. Few doctors report 
the interactions, few consumers know diet could have caused a side effect -- 
and some interactions have only recently been discovered.

"Both health care professional education as well as consumer education is 
needed," Bottorff added.

He urged patients to report possible drug side effects to a health worker 
immediately, but said people also should use common sense. Grapefruit's effect, 
for example, "depends on how much grapefruit they take and how often. Half a 
grapefruit for breakfast once a week might not be enough to cause a problem."

(For a free copy of "Food & Drug Interactions," call 1-800-639-8140 or go to 
<> )

By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer
Copyright 1998 Nando Media
Copyright 1998 The Associated Press

janet paterson - 51/41/37 - almonte/ontario/canada

janet313@xxxxxxxxxxx