Modern people pay attention to health preservation. Many people believe in strengthening the body through health food or Chinese herbal medicine. However, most of these people do not understand the interaction of drugs, especially those who use drugs for chronic diseases for a long time. If drugs are used together, it may lead to The side effects of the drug increase and even cause harm to the body. Everyone should pay more attention when taking it.

Anticoagulants combined with these drugs can cause bleeding problems

Many patients have high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, and the “three highs” problem increases the potential risk of vascular embolism (such as ischemic stroke). Agglutination to form thrombus.

However, anticoagulants have potential side effects of bleeding. If the patient has taken traditional Chinese herbal medicines that invigorate Qi and activate blood, such as angelica, salvia, safflower, etc., the risk of bleeding will increase. When nosebleeds, bleeding gums, and skin stasis occur If you have bleeding symptoms such as blue, you should seek medical attention immediately.

However, American ginseng and other drugs will not increase the effect of anticoagulants, but will reduce the effect, so as to avoid the problem of embolism.

In addition, patients with chronic diseases who take hypoglycemic drugs and happen to use Korean ginseng, American ginseng and other medicinal materials will increase the effect of lowering blood sugar and easily lead to hypoglycemia. Therefore, if the patient has cold sweats, tremors, rapid heartbeat, dizziness and weakness, etc., the blood sugar should be measured in time, and if it is low, it should be dealt with as soon as possible to avoid injury.

Are health food and Chinese and Western medicine safe? Wrong, in severe cases, kidney failure may occur!

The health food that people often eat is not a medicine. Does this mean that it is safe to use with medicine?

This idea is actually wrong. The amount of active ingredients in health food is often higher than that of daily intake of food, such as fish oil. Fish oil contains a lot of Omega-3, which can promote lipid metabolism, although it can help prevent cardiovascular disease. But fish oil also increases the risk of bleeding when combined with anticoagulants or antiplatelet drugs.

In addition, red yeast rice is also a commonly used health care product, which has the effect of lowering cholesterol. If it is mixed with the blood lipid-lowering drug statin, it may aggravate liver damage and even lead to rhabdomyolysis. For patients taking lipid-lowering drugs, it is best to arrange blood tests for liver function tests every 3-6 months.

Although rhabdomyolysis is relatively rare, the dual effects of red yeast rice and hypolipidemic drugs increase the possibility of rhabdomyolysis. When it occurs, there may be muscle soreness, general weakness, dark brown urine, and even severe cases. Acute renal failure. Therefore, if you are a patient with hyperlipidemia, it is not recommended to eat red yeast rice health food to avoid serious consequences.

2 Medications to Avoid Before and After Surgery

Interactions exist not only between drugs and drugs, drugs and health food, but also in patients undergoing surgery, some drugs should be used with extreme caution.

For example, antithrombotic drugs, mainly anticoagulant drugs and antiplatelet drugs , have the effect of smoothing blood flow in the body, but those who take the drugs need to undergo surgical treatment. If these drugs continue to be used, the amount of bleeding during the operation may increase. risk, but there is also a risk of blood clots if discontinued on their own.

If you know in advance that you are going to have surgery, the patient should take the initiative to inform the doctor about his medication history. The doctor will adjust the treatment plan of antithrombotic drugs in advance according to the different drugs and the patient’s condition, and then consider the surgical problem.

Certain fruits should not be taken with blood pressure medicine

In addition to the interaction between drugs and health products, if the patient has a chronic disease and is taking medication, he should also pay attention to the interaction caused by the combined use of fruits and drugs. Such fruits are mainly citrus fruits such as grapefruit and grapefruit. These fruits contain Furanocoumarins inhibit the enzyme CYP3A4 in the body responsible for metabolizing drugs.

Therefore, taking specific drugs such as hypotensive drugs, hypolipidemic drugs, antiarrhythmic drugs, immunosuppressants, etc. may lead to slower drug metabolism, longer drug stay in the body, increased concentration, and increased adverse reactions or risk of side effects.

So, if you accidentally eat citrus fruits after taking the medicine, should you stop the medicine immediately?

In fact, the antihypertensive drugs and blood lipid-lowering drugs taken are all drugs for chronic diseases. It is not recommended that patients with chronic diseases stop taking the drugs by themselves, which may easily lead to recurrence of the disease. The best way to deal with it is to stop ingesting the fruit immediately and take the medicine normally. If there is no adverse reaction within 2-3 days, the risk is small. If you feel unwell, you should go to the hospital as soon as possible.

In addition, some people also asked whether the drug can be taken with common tea and coffee?

Doctors generally recommend that patients take medicine with boiled water, and do not take medicine with beverages , including coffee, tea and other beverages. Coffee or tea contains caffeine, which has a refreshing effect. If it is taken with sedative or sleeping drugs, the effect Restricted; drinks such as alcohol can cause disturbance of liver metabolism. Therefore, taking plain water is the best way to avoid interactions.

How to avoid interactions? There are 2 key points for more consultation

To avoid the interaction between drugs and health products, it is best for patients to take the initiative to communicate with the doctor about the relevant medication history, the current type of medication, and whether to take which health products when they go to the hospital, and the doctor can help to judge.

In addition, when you go to the pharmacy to buy medicine, you should consult the resident doctor or pharmacist of the pharmacy, and tell your medication information in detail, such as the medicine you are currently using, whether it is a prescription drug, or a self-purchased drug, health food, or even a Traditional Chinese medicine or herbal medicine can help you avoid the crisis of mixing drugs.