If a food or drink you consume adversely affects the medications you take, serious complications can occur. Food and drug interactions can increase or decrease the effectiveness of your medicine. These interactions can happen with prescription or overthecounter medicines, including antacids, vitamins and iron pills. The side effects can range from minimal to lifethreatening. Watch as Juliet Vento, M.D., a primary care physician with Baptist Health Primary Care, talks about a few medications that can have serious interactions when combined with certain foods.

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[Transcript]

[Baptist Health South Florida]
Juliet Vento:
The foods you eat can have a profound effect on the medications that you're taking. It can either make them more effective or less effective. One of the important interactions that our patients should be aware of is with grapefruit juice. Grapefruit juice has the potential of increasing the effectiveness of some of your medications, particularly cholesterollowering medications, such as statins.
[Doctor discussing food and drug interactions]
[Green leafy vegetables can lower the effectiveness of blood thinners]
Juliet Vento:
For that matter, it could make its effect and its side effects much worse. So it could give you worse liver problems and problems also with muscle aches and pain. Medication such as Coumadin could interact with green leafy vegetables. And we're talking about kale or green collards, broccoli, brussels sprouts.
[Alcohol lowers the effectiveness of antiinflammatory medications]
Juliet Vento:
Another potential interaction would be between alcohol and antiinflammatory medications. For instance, our nonsteroidal antiinflammatories like aspirin, Ibuprofen, Naproxen. Make sure that you discuss with your doctor about any potential side effects that these could have or any potential interaction with medications you're currently taking, foods that you normally eat or other supplements you might be taking.
[Make sure your doctor has all the facts when you talk about new medications]
Juliet Vento:
If you have any questions, any questions at all about side effects or potential interactions, you should let your physician know and you should let your pharmacist know. They can both help you figure out if there are any potential interactions between the medication that you've been given and the foods or the supplements that you're taking.
[Baptist Health South Florida]

[End Transcript]