Is it Dangerous to Drink on Medication?

Can people drink alcohol when taking medicine? And does fruit such as grapefruit also affect medication?

Now something that confuses a lot of people is when you’re on medication what food and drink should you were born like alcohol as the doctor i’m always asked can people drink booze when they’re taking medicines or could that end up being a lethal cocktail in fact it’s thought that drinking alcohol while taking medicine is a factor in up to a quarter of all amy visits

You might think that antibiotics are the biggest culprit but rather surprisingly most nowadays don’t require abstinence other drugs though can be a problem you should never take alcohol with medicines that make you drowsy because alcohol also makes you drowsy but there are other medicines that change the way that alcohol is broken down and they can increase this

Toxic by-product that you get when you drink alcohol got acetaldehyde and give you a thing called a flushing syndrome where you couldn’t vomit you go bright red in the face and they can actually dangerously increase your heart rate so alcohol is something to be avoided and let’s got absolutely certain that the drug you’re on is safe when you take it alcohol isn’t

The only culprit though lots of foods can cause problems too one of the most surprising offenders is grapefruit it’s the iconic healthy breakfast isn’t it what could possibly be harmful about a grapefruit well in fact when scientists were studying the effect of alcohol on blood pressure medicines back in the 1980s they disguised the taste of our collins study with

Grapefruit juice and what they found out was that the grapefruit had a far bigger effect on the medication dose than the alcohol did and in some cases it actually tripled the dose of blood pressure medicine this happens because grapefruit contains the chemical that messes up the normal breakdown of drugs in your body this is particularly true for cholesterol drugs

Like statins if you take one statin pill a day but you also drink a glass of grapefruit what you’ll end up with in your bloodstream is the equivalent of taking 13 statin and that can be really really dangerous it’s not all status though so always check with your doctor nurse or pharmacist now as if the dangers of grapefruit weren’t enough there are some other foods

To look out for if you’re taking a blood thinning medicine to prevent clots like warfarin vegetables like kale spinach broccoli salad leaves and cabbage can be a bit of a problem even green tea and liver because all these things contain high levels of vitamin k and vitamin k can help promote blood clotting so they effectively mean you end up needing more of that

Anti clotting drug but don’t go eliminating healthy green veg from your diet if you’re on blood thinners just eat them in small regular amounts to avoid a big vitamin k boost finally licorice black licorice contains a chemical that can cause your potassium levels to fall low potassium levels may lead to high blood pressure irregular heart rhythms and even heart

Failure so if you’re on heart or blood pressure medicines it might be best to stick it to the stick then all could possibly remember all the different drug and food interactions it’s way too complicated so the thing to remember is check with your doctor check with your pharmacist and always read the packet you

Transcribed from video
Is it Dangerous to Drink on Medication? | Earth Lab By BBC Earth Lab