Food-Drug Interactions

Interactions between drugs have been known for a longer period, and recently food-drug interactions have attracted attention. One of the first reported interactions was a hypertensive crisis caused by a reaction between monoamine oxidases and certain types of cheese (Sjöqvist and Böttiger, JIM 268(6):512–5, 2010). The term food-drug interaction also includes drug impact on nutritional status. On the other hand, interaction that lowers drug efficiency can result in a patient’s longer recovery period, use of many different drugs and health deteriorating (Mahan and Raymond, Saunders, Canada, 2017). Given that medical nutritional therapy is an integral part of many disease treatments, it is important to know and understand the reaction between a particular drug and food, and based on it, strive to ensure patients’ adequate nutritional status. Although the most common food-drug interactions are associated with a negative outcome, sometimes some of them may prove a positive effect on the drug itself (Boullata and Hudson, J Acad Nutr Diet 112(4),506–17, 2012).