Holiday Food and Drug Interactions Hazardous to Your Health

20/11/07 Over the holiday season many people consume foods and drinks that are outside of their normal diet without realizing possible harmful effects due to interactions with their medications. There are more than 2 million adverse drug reactions each year resulting in 100,000 deaths. Thomson Healthcare, has a free resource, PDRHealth.com, that anyone can use to check for interactions between drugs and food, alcohol, or tobacco products. PDRHealth.com takes the definitive drug resource information provided for physicians and puts it in an easy-to-use online resource that allows individuals to check for dangerous interactions.

"When the holidays roll around, the majority of people experience changes in their diets," said Michael DeLuca, PharmD, strategic manager for Thomson Healthcare PDR. "There can be an increase in fatty and rich foods plus more frequent consumption of alcoholic beverages. Since these dietary changes are perceived as one-off events around the holidays, people often neglect to check the impact of these foods on current medications. It is also important to note that even if there is no immediate impact to a person's health, certain foods and drinks could alter the effectiveness of their current medications. It is important to check with your doctor or pharmacist any time you add a new medication to your drug regimen."

Among some of the information that can be found on the PDRhealth.com drug interaction tool is the following:

-- Zoloft and Alcohol (Drug/Alcohol Interactions): Consuming alcohol when taking certain medications could potentially lead to decreased drug effectiveness and an increase in side effects. In rare cases, the combination of alcohol and drugs produce a life-threatening reaction. Alcohol will have an effect on most medications that work in the central nervous system.  Drinking alcohol while using a Serotonin Selective Reuptake Inhibitor (i.e., Zoloft, sertraline HCl) could impair mental and motor skills; using alcohol when on a medication that treats insomnia could result in increased sedation.

-- MAOIs and Gravy (Drug/Food Interactions): Food can decrease or increase the effects of a drug or cause seriously dangerous side effects. For example, eating tyramine rich foods (i.e., spinach, grapes, packaged gravy, aged cheese) while on a Monoamine Oxidase (MAO) Inhibitor (i.e., Parnate, tranycypromine sulfate) can increase blood pressure and cause a serious and potentially life-threatening hypertensive crisis. And using Lipitor, Atorvastin calcium in conjunction with grapefruit juice can lead to muscle pain and weakness.

-- Pepto-Bismol and Prescription Drugs (Drug/Drug Interactions): Anything from antacids to cold and flu medications can lead to adverse effects when combined with prescription drugs. These over-the-counter remedies can also decrease the effectiveness of prescription medication, thus affecting the health of an individual.

PDRhealth.com is free to all users. Individuals also can sign up to receive electronic newsletters, alerts on new clinical trials and new information about prescription drugs.