Drug interactions can cause serious harm or reduce the effectiveness of your medications. Learn what factors affect drug interactions and more.
Drug interactions are changes in the effects of one or more drugs due to their interaction with other drugs, food, supplements, or diseases.
They can increase or decrease the actions of the drugs, resulting in unwanted side effects, toxicity, or treatment failure.
Drug interactions are a common and preventable cause of adverse drug events.
According to a study by the FDA, about 2.8 million serious adverse drug events occur each year in the US, and about 40% of them are preventable.
To avoid dangerous drug interactions, you need to know what factors affect them and how to check for them with the best drug interaction checker.
Factors Affecting Drug Interactions
There are many factors that can influence drug interactions, such as:
The number of drugs you take
The more drugs you take, the higher the risk of drug interactions. Some drugs may have additive, synergistic, or antagonistic effects when taken together.
For example, taking two drugs that lower blood pressure may cause excessive hypotension, while taking two drugs that increase serotonin levels may cause serotonin syndrome.
Your age, kidney and liver function
Your age and organ function can affect how your body absorbs, distributes, metabolizes, and excretes drugs.
Older people and people with kidney or liver impairment may have reduced clearance of drugs, leading to higher blood levels and increased risk of toxicity.
Your diet and possible drug interactions
Some foods and beverages can interact with certain drugs and alter their effects.
For example, grapefruit juice can inhibit an enzyme that metabolizes many drugs, such as statins, calcium channel blockers, and some antidepressants.
This can increase the blood levels of these drugs and cause serious side effects.
Alcohol can also interact with many drugs and increase the risk of liver damage, bleeding, sedation, or intoxication.
Your medical conditions
Some medical conditions can affect how your body responds to drugs or make you more susceptible to drug interactions.
For example, people with diabetes may need to adjust their insulin dose when taking steroids or beta-blockers.
People with heart failure may need to avoid certain drugs that can worsen their condition, such as NSAIDs or calcium channel blockers.
Your metabolic enzymes and genetics
Your metabolic enzymes are proteins that break down drugs in your body. They can vary in activity and expression depending on your genetics.
Some people may have faster or slower metabolism of certain drugs than others. This can affect the blood levels and effectiveness of the drugs.
For example, some people have a genetic variation that makes them poor metabolizers of codeine.
This means that codeine is not converted into its active form (morphine) in their body and has no pain-relieving effect.
How to Prevent Drug Interactions with the Best Drug Interaction Checker?
To prevent drug interactions, you need to be aware of all the drugs you are taking, including prescription drugs, over-the-counter drugs, herbal products, and nutritional supplements.
You also need to inform your doctor and pharmacist about your medical history, allergies, diet, and alcohol consumption.
The best way to check for drug interactions is to use a reliable and updated drug interaction checker tool.
A drug interaction checker is a software that analyzes the potential interactions between different drugs based on their pharmacological properties and clinical evidence.
