Mechanisms and consequencesWarfarin-vitamin K interactions are well-known warfarin-food interactions and so those prescribed warfarin are typically “educated” about vitamin K ...
November 28, 2022
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- Archives: Drug-Food interactions
Drug-food interactions are complex, varied and encompass a variety of scenarios. Ultimately a database identifying known food interactions with prescribed medicines, and potential food interactions for each drug, is long overdue. One of the consequences from not being a reportable incident is the lack of knowledge relating to the number of hospital admissions due to this issue. Drug discovery submissions to the Therapeutic Goods Administration should include identified and potential food interactions with each medicine. Medicines are typically administered before meals to maximise dose effect and administered with meals to minimise side effects. Drug-food interaction advice is quite inconsistent and falls into three main groups – - advice not provided typically applies to alcohol intake, and caffeine intake; - food contra-indicated examples includes grapefruit and possibly cranberry; - advice yet-to-be-determined typically applies to the latest “wonder foods” that cure all ailments. Whilst inconsistent or irregular intake is the primary cause of problems this information is rarely passed on to the consumer. Interactions between prescribed medicines and common foods has gained some recognition in the last 30 years, however the knowledge base remains remarkably small.
- research papers are scattered across a plethora of journals and subjects;
- the studies are mostly small;
- there is an assumption, without evidence, that food intake will cover the drug-induced nutrient losses;
- there is also an assumption by the pharmaceutical sector that food is benign – this assumption is steadily being eroded,
- the training for doctors and pharmacists training does not include a significant nutrition component. This is surprising given 80+% of western ill-health has an underlying negative nutrition component.
- pharmaceutical industry. The regulatory processes do not require negative nutritional impacts of pharmaceutical products to be included in the drug discovery process;
- governmental research bodies. The number of similarly worthwhile research projects competing for funding is steadily increasing whilst the funding sources generally are not;
- philanthropic bodies. Philanthropic bodies either support a specific area of research or dispense smaller grants to a larger number of applicants. Sadly, there aren't any philanthropic bodies with a particular interest in this area of expertise.
- accessing the information, and
- presenting the findings in a clinically meaningful format.
July 6, 2022
Mechanisms and consequencesCaffeine is a commonly consumed foodstuff, typically found in beverages such as coffee, tea, cola, energy drinks, and ...
October 19, 2021
Mechanisms and consequencesDrug-food interaction advice is quite inconsistent and falls into three main groups – advice not provided, food contra-indicated, ...
September 14, 2021
Mechanisms and consequencesMaximising drug dose or minimising side effects were the only interactions that pharmaceutical companies considered in relation to ...
