Abstract

JAUREGUI-GARRIDO, B.  and  JAUREGUI-LOBERA, I.. Interactions between antiarrhythmic drugs and food. Nutr. Hosp. [online]. 2012, vol.27, n.5, pp.1399-1407. ISSN 1699-5198.  https://dx.doi.org/10.3305/nh.2012.27.5.5925.

Objective: A drug interaction is defined as any alteration, pharmacokinetics and/or pharmacodynamics, produced by different substances, other drug treatments, dietary factors and habits such as drinking and smoking. These interactions can affect the antiarrhythmic drugs, altering their therapeutic efficacy and adverse effects. The aim of this study was to conduct a review of available data about interactions between antiarrhythmic drugs and food. Methods: The purpose of this review was to report an update of the existing literature data on the main findings with respect to food and antiarrhythmic drugs interactions by means of a search conducted in PubMed, which yielded a total of 250 articles initially. Results: After excluding different articles which were not focusing on the specific objective, the main results refer to interactions among antiarrhythmic drugs and food in general, grapefruit juice, and others like fibre or medicinal plants. Discussion: Food may affect the bioavailability of antiarrhythmic drugs and in some specific cases (dairy products, rich-in-protein diets, grapefruit juice), this should be carefully considered. The best recommendation seems to advise patients to remove the grapefruit juice from their diet when treatment with these drugs. Fibre should be separated from taking these drugs and regarding medicinal plants and given their increased use, the anamnesis must include information about its use, the reason for that use and what types of plants are used, all in order to give the corresponding recommendations.

Keywords : Antiarrhythmic drugs; Food-drugs interactions; Grapefruit juice; Medicinal plants; Fibre; Diet.

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