Dangerous Combinations: Do Not Mix These Foods With Your Meds

It is not advisable to combine fat with antifungal medicines and offal and seafood do not go with barbiturates. Read what other combinations you should avoid!

There are numerous cases when combining certain foods and medicines causes reduced effect of the medications. Some combinations can however be dangerous.

For instance, a glass of milk or squeezed grapefruit juice in combination with medications can sometimes cause side effects, and even a very turbulent reaction of the organism. Some drugs have an extremely powerful impact on the carbohydrate, some on the fats, some on the proteins, and many of them have a strong effect on the vitamins and minerals.

We reveal the combination of food and medicines that are not recommended to combine, and that could jeopardize the effectiveness of the medications.

Alcohol and drugs should not be taken together.

Do not mix alcohol with antipsychotics, tricyclic antidepressants and benzodiazepines because they cause drowsiness. Do not drink alcohol if you have taken your valerian pill or if you are using some older-generation antihistamines.

Cereals and vegetables slow down the effects of antidepressants.

High fiber foods can alter the operation of tricyclic antidepressants, as well as the molecules of certain epilepsy drugs and cardio-tonics for heart problems. These food fibers slow down the absorption of the drug in the intestines, nullifying its effect. It is not necessary to remove this type of food from your diet, but it is important that you take the medication an hour before the meal.

Vegetable fibers, especially pectin (which is highly concentrated in the apple peel) slows the absorption of most drugs. This applies above all to digoxin, a medication for heart patients, and acetaminophen, which is taken in the event of various types of pain.

Vitamin C and digestives should not be combined with anti-anemic drugs

If you are on an anti-anemic treatment, you need to be carefully when consuming fruits. Fruits rich in vitamin C can cause a disruption in the amount of iron, and there is a risk of poisoning. Large doses of vitamin C are not recommended for those who are genetically vulnerable to the risk of excessive accumulation of iron, for example, those with thalassemia and hemochromatosis. Vitamin C may limit the excretion of aspirin, so it’s important to be careful not to take them together.

Milk and dairy products can undo the effect of antibiotics

Foods rich in calcium, like milk and cheese, can undo the effect of certain antibiotics (tetracycline) and weaken the action of quinolones, an anti-inflammatory drugs. The calcium in these cases is linked to their molecules and deactivates them.

Is that dangerous? In the antibiotic therapy the ratio of active substances must be the same every day of the treatment, a reduced amount of active substances is a risk that the bacteria is not removed completely. Milk with calcium-based antacids and baking soda can cause unwanted side effects.

Therefore, it is better to avoid dairy products during the treatment. The absorption of tetracycline antibiotics is inhibited by calcium and iron, so it is not recommended to take them with milk that is rich in calcium or foods that are rich in iron.

The use of salt in combination with heart tablets will increase your blood pressure

If you are taking ACE – inhibitors (heart medicine and high pressure medicines), a larger amount of potassium, which is highly concentrated in sea salt, can cause you a cardiac arrhythmia. Do not take this type of salt if you are taking antidepressants, especially lithium-based, because the potassium increases the concentration of the active substance and can cause a number of side effects.

You should be extra careful when consuming certain fruits, especially grapefruit juice

According to the latest surveys, the main culprits for possible side effects include the bioflavonoids, naringin-naringenin and furocoumarines, substances which are highly concentrated in the grapefruit. These substances increase the blood concentration of the antihistamine and tranquilizers, such as benzodiazepines and calcium antagonists, which are used in the high blood pressure treatment. Grapefruit also has same effect on immunosuppressant’s (which are used after a transplant), statins (anti-blood fat drugs), and anti-inflammatory drugs such as corticosteroids.

There are also some open discussions about the negative effect of grapefruit in the breast cancer. “British Journal of Cancer” warns that grapefruit may increase the likelihood of breast cancer in menopausal women by 30%. In these cases it is recommended to reduce its intake, while other studies have made different conclusions, according to which grapefruit is useful in anti-cancer therapies.

Noble mold is dangerous in cases of hypertension

The cheeses with noble mold contain tyramine (it can be also found in red wine, chocolate, soy), which can cause a crisis at elevated blood pressure, if you are treated with antidepressants or some intestinal anti-microbe medicines. Such cheeses are dangerous for those who have problems with heart circulation because of the tyramine, which causes narrowing of the blood vessels and can cause a high blood pressure.

Certain species, such as cheddar and parmesan, can inhibit the action of antidepressant drugs, which is especially noticeable in the cases of drugs based on mono-oxygenate. You should therefore avoid dairy products, cod and peppers.

Offal and seafood should not be consumed with barbiturates.

If you are prescribed with barbiturates (depression, anxiety, sleep disorders medicines), you need to avoid eating foods rich in vitamin B12 such as liver, kidneys, seafood, brewer’s yeast. Mixing these substances can undo the effect of the therapy and if you increase the dosage of the remedy on your own, it can lead to a poisoning.

It is not preferably to combine fatty food with antifungal medicines.

Fat increases the risk of poisoning especially if you are using griseofulvin, a molecule that is present in some antifungal medicines. When you are eating a fatty meal, the medicine is longer exposed to the enzymes of digestion which reduce its effect. This especially refers to antibiotics that must be taken between meals.