Over the years, scientists have learned that even a single medication can either block — or hasten — the elimination of another medication. This “drug metabolism” occurs primarily in the liver and/or the kidneys, and can be quite different from person-to-person depending on variables such as genetics, gender, body weight, diet, alcohol intake, and more.
Certain medications can occupy the body’s resources, which would otherwise be available to metabolize other medications, or sometimes they can influence the body to metabolize faster. This is generally how medications interact with each other. Taking one medication can slow-down (or speed up) the process of metabolizing another medication. The slowing-down and speeding-up processes ultimately lead to changes in the concentration of the medication in our blood, which can cause the concentration to be too low to be effective, or sometimes cause the concentration to be dangerously elevated.
The interaction tool (link below) helps us identify these potential interactions, and is a really innovative and timely contribution to the world right now.
https://www.covid19-druginteractions.org
The article below, entitled “Drug-Drug Interactions Could Imperil Covid-19 Treatment” provides a good discussion and commentary on this new drug interaction checker tool, and the data it emerged from.
https://undark.org/2020/05/07/drug-interaction-covid-19
Take a look at our Covid-Page for a volume of fact-checked authoratative information about Covid-19.
Have a peak at our ultra-thin and durable Medication-Cards for the wallet.
Read about our work helping patients Negotiate Medical Bills and other components of our Patient Advocacy.
Justin Groode MD | Co-Founder, Patient Advocate Alliance