Interactions between antihypertensive drugs and food.

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 antihypertensive drugs, altering their therapeutic efficacy and causing toxic effects. The aim of this study was to conduct a review of available data about interactions between antihypertensive agents and food.

METHODS

The purpose of this review was to report an update of main findings with respect to the interactions between food and antihypertensive drugs by way of a search conducted in PubMed, which yielded a total of 236 articles initially.

RESULTS

After excluding different articles, which were not focusing on the specific objective, the main results refer to interactions between antihypertensive drugs and food (in general) as well as between antihypertensive agents and grapefruit juice.

DISCUSSION: Food may affect the bioavailability of antihypertensive drugs and this should be carefully considered. Advising patients to remove the grapefruit juice from their diet when treatment with these drugs seems to be the best recommendation. Given these interactions and the associated potential adverse effects the anamnesis must include detailed information about the specific eating habits of the patients.