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Medicine and Food: When they don't mix
What is a drug-food interaction?
A drug-food interaction happens when the food you eat affects the ingredients
in a medicine you are taking, so the medicine can't work the way it should.
Drug-food interactions can happen with both prescription and over-the-counter
medicines, including antacids, vitamins and iron pills.
Are all medicines affected by food?
Not all medicines are affected by food, but many medicines can be affected by
what you eat and when you eat it. For example, with some medicines, taking the
pill at the same time you eat may interfere with the way your stomach and
intestines absorb the medicine. The food may delay or decrease the absorption
of the drug. This is why some medicines should be taken on an empty stomach (1
hour before eating or 2 hours after eating).
On the other hand, some medicines are easier to tolerate when taken with food.
Ask your doctor or your pharmacist whether it's OK to take your medicine with
a snack or a meal or whether it should be taken on an empty stomach.
Facts to remember about drug-food interactions
Read the prescription label on the container. If you don't understand
something, ask your doctor or pharmacist about it.
Read directions, warnings and interaction precautions printed on all
medicine labels and packages. Even over-the-counter medicines can
cause problems.
Take medicine with a full glass of water.
Don't stir medicine into your food or take capsules apart (unless your
doctor tells you to do so), because this may change the way the drug
works.
Don't take vitamin pills at the same time you take medicine, because
vitamins and minerals can interact with some drugs.
Don't mix medicine into hot drinks, because the heat from the drink
may destroy the effectiveness of the drug.
Never take medicine with alcoholic drinks.
Parkinson's Disease
What causes the tremor of Parkinson's disease?
People with Parkinson's disease have a progressive loss of function of the
nerve cells in the part of the brain that controls muscle movement. Tremors
occur as a result of damage to the nerve cells.
The tremor, or "shakiness," of Parkinson's disease gets worse when the person
is at rest and better when the person moves. The tremor may affect one side of
the body more than the other, and can affect the lower jaw, arms and legs.
Handwriting may also look "shaky" and smaller than usual. Other symptoms of
Parkinson's disease include nightmares, depression, excess saliva, difficulty
turning over in bed and buttoning clothes or cutting food, and problems with
walking.
How is Parkinson's disease diagnosed?
No blood tests can detect Parkinson's disease. Some kinds of x-rays can help
your doctor make sure nothing else is causing your symptoms. But x-rays can't
show whether a person has Parkinson's disease. The symptoms mentioned above
suggest to a doctor that a person might have Parkinson's disease. If the
symptoms go away or get better when the person takes a medicine called
levodopa, it's fairly certain that the person has Parkinson's disease.
What causes Parkinson's disease?
Doctors don't know exactly what causes Parkinson's disease. Some medicines can
cause or worsen symptoms of Parkinson's disease.
Can medicines treat Parkinson's disease?
There is no cure for Parkinson's disease. However, medicines can help control
the symptoms of the disease. Some of the medicines used to treat Parkinson's
disease include levodopa-carbidopa (brand: Sinemet), bromocriptine (brandname:
Parlodel), selegiline (brandname: Eldepryl), pramipexole (brandname: Mirapex),
ropinirole (brandname: Requip), tolcapone (brandname: Tasmar) and pergolide
(brandname: Permax). Your doctor will discuss with you which medicines might
help you.
Where can I get more information about Parkinson's disease?
Information is available from the following organizations:
American Parkinson's Disease Association, Inc.
1250 Hylan Blvd., Suite 4B
Staten Island, NY 10305
800-223-2732
National Parkinson's Foundation
1501 N.W. 9th Ave., Bob Hope Road
Miami, FL 33136-1494
800-327-4545
Parkinson's Disease Foundation
710 W. 168th St.
New York, NY 10032
800-457-6676
United Parkinson's Foundation and International Tremor Foundation
833 W. Washington Blvd.
Chicago, IL 60607
312-733-1893
Hearing: Noise-Induced Hearing Loss
The importance of hearing
Hearing allows you to be involved with the world around you. As a young
child, you learned to speak by listening to and imitating the voices of
others. Babies who are deaf have a hard time learning to speak clearly. You
have learned most of what you know by listening to parents and teachers,
television and radio. Music, the sounds of nature and the voices of loved
ones can bring you pleasure; sirens and alarms can warn you about danger,
even when you are asleep.
The structure of the ear
The human ear is divided into 3 parts--the external, middle and inner ear.
The inner ear is located inside the skull. It is the most complex part of
the ear. The soft tissue of the inner ear is made of sensory cells,
supporting cells and nerve fibers, all arranged in a pattern on a thin,
elastic membrane (a thin sheet of tissue). Large channels filled with fluid
surround the soft tissue of the inner ear.
What are the effects of noise?
Aging, some drugs, head injuries and too much noise can all cause lasting
damage to hearing. This handout discusses the most common type of permanent
hearing loss--the loss that results from too much noise.
Long exposure to noise can damage the soft tissue of the inner ear. Sensory
cells and nerve fibers are destroyed by continuous or repeated exposure to
loud sounds. If enough sensory cells and nerve fibers are destroyed, hearing
is permanently damaged.
Whether noise harms your hearing depends on the loudness, the pitch and the
length of time you are exposed to the noise. The loudness of a
sound--measured in decibels (dB)--and the length of exposure are related;
the louder the sound, the shorter the exposure can be before damage occurs.
For example, 8 hours of exposure to 85-dB industrial noise on a daily basis
is considered safe for most persons' ears. However, using power tools (at
about 100 dB), listening to stereo headsets (at about 110 dB) or attending a
rock concert (at about l20 dB) may damage the hearing of some people after
only a few times.
What are the symptoms of noise-induced hearing loss?
One reason people fail to notice the danger of noise is that excess exposure
to noise causes few symptoms. Hearing loss is rarely painful. The symptoms
are usually vague feelings of pressure or fullness in the ears, speech that
seems to be muffled or far away, and a ringing sound in the ears that you
notice when you are in quiet places. These symptoms may go away minutes,
hours or days after the exposure to noise ends.
People assume that if the symptoms go away, their ears have "bounced back"
to normal. This is not really true. Even if there are no more symptoms, some
of the sensory cells in the inner ear may have been destroyed by the noise.
Your hearing returns to normal if enough healthy sensory cells are left in
your inner ear. But you will develop a lasting hearing loss if the noise
exposure is repeated and more sensory cells are destroyed.
The first sign of a noise-induced hearing loss is not hearing high-pitched
sounds, like the singing of birds, or not understanding the speech of women
and small children. If the damage goes on, hearing declines further, and
lower pitched sounds, including men's voices, become hard to understand.
How can you decide which noises are too loud?
The following signs should be a red flag that the noise around you is too
loud:
If you have to shout to be heard above the noise.
If you can't understand someone who is speaking to you from less than 2
feet away.
If a person standing near you can hear sounds from your stereo headset
while it is on your head.
How can I prevent noise-induced hearing loss?
Reduce your exposure to noise. This step is especially important for
people who work in noisy places and who go to and from work in noisy city
traffic. You can reduce your exposure to noise by choosing quiet leisure
activities rather than noisy ones.
Develop the habit of wearing earplugs when you know you will be exposed to
noise for a long time. Disposable foam earplugs cost about $2 a pair and
are available in drugstores. These earplugs, which can quiet up to 25 dB
of sound, can mean the difference between a dangerous and a safe level of
noise. You should always wear ear plugs when riding snowmobiles or
motorcycles, when using power tools, lawn mowers or leaf blowers, or when
traveling in loud motorized vehicles.
Use sound-absorbing materials to reduce noise at home and at work. Rubber
mats can be put under noisy kitchen appliances, computer printers and
typewriters to cut down on noise. Curtains and carpeting also help reduce
indoor noise. Storm windows or double-pane windows can reduce the amount
of outside noise that enters the home or workplace.
Don't use several noisy machines at the same time. Try to keep television
sets, stereos and headsets low in volume. Loudness is a habit that can be
broken.
Don't try to drown out unwanted noise with other sounds. For example,
don't turn up the volume on your car radio or headset to drown out traffic
noise or turn up the television volume while vacuuming.
Have your hearing checked. Persons at risk for hearing loss should have
their hearing tested every year. You are at risk if you are regularly
exposed to loud noise at work or play.