Passionate Dietitian | Helping Achieve Desired Health Outcomes, One Plate at a Time | Providing Tailored & Evidence-Based Nutrition Therapy.
In my final year while performing clinical rotations, I noticed something big that most patients (and professionals) tended to miss: Food-drug Interactions. I noticed that some patients completely disregarded the directions on their prescriptions and took medications to the best of their understanding. Now, this could be due to lack of patient counselling- or due to external influences from family members and other "health pros" in their surroundings. Because for the patients, having a prescription in hand is their ticket to health. But, amidst the many dangers of not following a prescription lies one more - how these ill-timely ingested drugs alter the absorption of not only those drugs, but also the food and its nutrients. With not following the direction-of-use comes a point where both the drug and nutrient/food component have to compete each other for the same (and limited) metabolising enzymes; resulting in poor absorption of both. This may lead to nutritional deficiencies over time, and a significant decrease in therapeutic effect of the medications: a lose-lose situation overall. So what can we as healthcare providers do? 💊Encourage patients to discuss their medication and dietary habits with all their healthcare providers prior to starting any treatment. 💊Counsel patients to follow their prescription to the T (both in timings and dosage). 💊Educate them about the dangers of mixing certain foods and drugs (ex: mixing calcium-containing foods with certain antibiotics - a big trend here is to take antibiotics with milk). 💊Counsel them about how not complying with the instructions can prolong the disease hence the treatment, and also lead to nutrient deficiencies overtime. 💊Prompt them to ask questions regarding their prescriptions and meal times. Although Food-drug Interactions are discussed to some extent in the healthcare circles, the general population remains largely unaware of its gravity. More awareness and emphasis on this topic is required so that patients achieve desired health outcomes when taking medications. Have you ever encountered this frustrating issue in your practice? How do you overcome it? I invite my fellow dietitians and healthcare professionals to share! 💊🍎 . . . #FoodDrugInteractions #MedicationAwareness #PatientEducation #HealthcareTips #TherapeuticNutrition #DrugNutrientInteractions #Dietitian #LinkedInCreator #prescriptiondrugs #followtheprescription #meds
Passionate Dietitian | Helping Achieve Desired Health Outcomes, One Plate at a Time | Providing Tailored & Evidence-Based Nutrition Therapy.
7moDo you think there's sufficient dialogue about food-drug interactions between a healthcare professional and a patient?