Over the past few months, I’ve been taking some medications to deal with a couple of issues, and overall I have to say that this treatment has been a success. Last week I paid a visit to my doctor and found that my blood pressure was higher than it should be (under the medication). The result was an increase in the medication which appears to be working now, but it got me thinking: why would it increase if I have been doing most of the things I should to control it?
Apart from the obvious (more exercise), there is another element that I started to research that could contribute to this increase. This is drug interactions.
I found a great site (drugs.com) that lists many of the more commonly available drugs on the market, and each listing provides you with major, moderate or minor interactions with other drugs (including supplements).
I was surprised to find that the tummy fixers (like Rolaids, Tums, etc.) have a moderate interaction with my BP medication. These fixers are based on calcium product, and the BP medication is a calcium blocker, so by taking these fixers, I am making it more difficult for my BP to work. My multivitamin is also a moderate interaction, as it includes calcium (it’s important to note that it is the amount of extra calcium that may cause the problem, not calcium itself).
So I went through all my supplements and cold/flu/allergy pills to find out which ones work with no interaction or minor interaction, and I was actually relieved that my daily allergy pill is fine, as is the DayQuil that I took a few weeks ago when I thought I was coming down with a cold.
It’s worth checking out if you are on any medications, or just want to see what interactions exist with the common supplements that you may take.
URL is here: http://www.drugs.com/drug_interactions.html