Are Your Medications Safe To Take With Holiday Food And Drink?

This is not medical advice.

The holiday season for many means family, friends, fun and food — with an emphasis on the latter. However, did you know some of the most common foods eaten during the holiday season can have negative interactions with common medications?

Nearly half of all Americans have taken a prescription medication in the last 30 days, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), so it's important to understand how diet can affect a prescription’s efficacy. You’ll also want to know if mixing your medication with certain foods could lead to unpleasant or potentially dangerous side effects.

How Do Food And Drink Affect Medications?

Different food and drinks can impact your body's function depending on your vitals, what you're consuming and the medication you're on. Combinations of various foods and medicines can speed up or slow down the action of medication, cause physical side effects, and stimulate or suppress your appetite. Certain foods and beverages may also alter how your body absorbs vitamins and minerals and how it uses those nutrients. In special cases, the end results can be dangerous for your body.

Some physical side effects that may be caused by an adverse food and drug interaction include:

• Headaches
• Fatigue
• Constipation or diarrhea
• Confusion
• Depression
• Decreased sexual behavior
• Loss of balance

Medication And Food Or Drink Combinations To Avoid If You’re On Certain Medications

Alcohol

A glass of wine with a holiday meal or a champagne toast for New Year’s Eve might be standard for many American families, but alcohol is one of the biggest culprits of adverse medication interactions.

Alcohol is a depressant on its own, so combining it with other medications could have negative effects. You should plan to avoid alcohol this holiday season if you currently take the following prescription or over-the-counter medications:

• Antidepressants or tranquilizers — When combined with antidepressants or tranquilizers, alcohol can make a person feel more depressed, sleepy and impair their alertness and focus.

• Opioid pain medications — Combining alcohol with certain pain opioid pain relievers, such as Norco and Oxycontin, can have dangerous side effects, including heart and liver failure.
• Antipsychotics — Taking antipsychotics with alcohol can intensify the drug's sedating effects.
• Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) —. Consuming alcohol with NSAIDs like ibuprofen (Motrin), naproxen (Aleve), and celecoxib (Celebrex) may create gastrointestinal problems that can upset your stomach and damage your kidneys.

Citrus Fruits

Fruit is common around the holidays as both a dessert and a gift for others. However, citrus fruits such as lemons, limes, grapefruits and their juices can have hazardous effects when combined with certain medications.

• Statins — Grapefruit can change how your body processes statins, which are drugs that help lower your cholesterol. When grapefruit or grapefruit juice is combined with medication such as Lipitor, Zocor and Mevacor, it can increase a person's risk for liver damage and kidney failure.
• Calcium channel blockers — When calcium channel blockers, such as Plendil, Cardene, Norvasc and Adalat, are consumed with grapefruit and tangelos, it can dangerously affect a person's blood pressure.
• Erectile dysfunction (ED) medications — Taking ED medications, like Viagra and Cialis, with grapefruit or grapefruit juice can make the side effects of the drug more severe.

Take extra care when consuming a cocktail or punch too, as citrus fruit juices can be common ingredients in them. If you're unsure what's in a drink, be safe and ask.

Dairy

Although more dairy-free, lactose-free and vegan options are becoming available in supermarkets, it can be incredibly difficult to avoid dairy around the holidays. Milk, cream and cheese are common ingredients in many classic holiday appetizers, side dishes and desserts.

When consumed with certain antibiotics, calcium in dairy foods combines with the medication, which may prevent it from being absorbed into your body and reduce its efficacy. If you're on antibiotics, ask your doctor if consuming dairy products with them will make them less effective. If so, be sure to wait at least an hour between taking your medication and consuming any type of dairy.

Chocolate

Like dairy, it's hard to avoid chocolate when it comes to the dessert table during the holiday season. Eating chocolate while taking an MAO inhibitor that's used to treat depression can have negative effects on the body, according to the American Heart Association.

Chocolate also contains caffeine, which causes various effects when combined with different drugs. When taken with stimulant drugs, such as Ritalin, the intended effect can be increased. If chocolate is consumed with sedative-hypnotics, such as Ambien, the caffeine can lessen its effects, keeping a person more alert.

High-Fat Meals

Typical holiday dinners may contain a lot of fat, which can come from nuts, fried food, sugar and meat. This higher-than-normal fat intake can be dangerous when taken with certain medications.
In general, consuming a heavy, high-fat meal with any type of prescription should be avoided. Because your gastrointestinal tract is working hard to break down the meal, any medications taken with the meal will have a delayed absorption. However, a few specific drugs like Contrave or other weight loss medications, or HIV medications like Sustiva, can be especially impeded by high-fat dishes.

Vitamin K

Vegetables that are high in vitamin K are often featured as sides or in salads during the holidays. They are typically dark, leafy green vegetables. These can include kale, mustard greens, collard greens, raw spinach, broccoli and brussels sprouts. Vitamin K is also found in green tea.

If you're taking any type of blood-thinning medication, like Coumadin, the National Institutes of Health recommends avoiding vegetables that are high in vitamin K, as it can block the effectiveness of the active ingredients in those drugs. Because of this side effect, consuming blood thinners with these vegetables can increase the risk of a blood clot.

Antibiotics, bile acid sequestrants and weight-loss drugs like Orlistat can also have adverse interactions with Vitamin K.

Talk To Your Doctor About Your Medications

If you’re concerned about your current prescription medications and how they might interact with your holiday meals and beverages, talk to your doctor to find out what specific foods and drinks you should avoid at gatherings this year. When you sign up for GoodRx Care, you can talk to a doctor online from the comfort of your home about your concerns and get prescriptions delivered to your local pharmacy. If your provider prescribes any medications to you, the GoodRx app can help you find the most affordable price in your area for your prescription drugs. It's easy to use and, most importantly, free.

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