Patient A: "Dr. Yao, can't you drink tea while taking medicine?" I heard that tea party is the antidote? "
Patient B: "Really? ! , I always take medicine with tea ... "
So what is the truth of the matter?
When taking medicine, I must have heard from my family or friends that I must not drink tea when taking medicine, because "tea can be an antidote."
Many people have since "followed" this principle, not only not drinking tea during taking medicine, but also not drinking coffee, milk, sugary drinks and beer. But whether tea will affect the efficacy, it seems that no one delves into it. Is that really the case?
Before answering this question, let's take a brief look at tea.
Tea is a magical healthy drink, which contains more than 400 kinds of chemicals, mainly including amino acids, vitamins, sugars, inorganic elements and alkaloids such as caffeine and theophylline.
These chemicals are not unique to tea, but widely exist in nature. Many foods in our life contain these substances, but the content is different.
Therefore, even if you don't drink tea when taking medicine, you are likely to come into contact with these chemical components, so the influence of tea on drugs is not as serious as imagined.
In medical research, some substances contained in tea do interact with some drugs, leading to bad results, as shown in the following figure:
First, sedatives
Caffeine can excite the nerve center, and taking it with hypnotics and antipsychotics at the same time will reduce the curative effect of drugs; Taking antidepressants at the same time may lead to arrhythmia or hypertensive crisis;
Theophylline will affect the absorption of anti-tremor paralysis drugs in gastrointestinal tract and reduce the curative effect.
Second, antibiotics.
Erythromycin, chloramphenicol, etc. It may be complexed with polyphenols in strong tea in the intestine, so it is not advisable to drink tea during medication;
Theophylline will compete with quinolones for metabolic pathways, which will increase the plasma concentration and prolong the drug half-life, causing discomfort.
Third, oral iron.
Polyphenols in tea will be complexed with Fe2+ in iron agent to form a precipitate, which is difficult to be absorbed and dissolved. Therefore, tea supplementation should be strictly prohibited.
Fourth, cardiotonic agent.
Digitalis, digitalis glycoside and digoxin contain cardiac glycosides, which are alkaloids extracted from plants. When combined with polyphenols in tea, it will produce insoluble precipitation, hinder absorption and weaken the curative effect, so it is forbidden to take it together.
Suppose you just swallowed the medicine and tea together, don't worry. At present, there is no case report of serious harm to human health caused by taking tea and medicine together.
Although the above-mentioned drugs have been confirmed by research, it should be noted that the decline in efficacy is often related to drinking a lot of tea.
In April, 20 17, a review published in the German electronic journal "Medicinal Plants" said that moderate tea drinking would not have a very obvious impact on the absorption and efficacy of drugs in the human body.
This is only from the perspective of tea extract and biological enzyme, and this complex biological effect needs further research to confirm.
In addition, according to the characteristics of patients' symptoms, traditional Chinese medicine or Chinese patent medicine is prescribed.
Therefore, drinking tea or avoiding tea usually depends on the patient's physique and the nature and taste characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine, and cannot be generalized.
I suggest you read the instructions carefully when taking medicine in the future, and pay attention to whether there is such a requirement that "this product should not be taken with tea" in the dietary taboo; If you are taking soup medicine, you can also consult the doctor who prescribed the medicine, without specific instructions.
So this article is to tell you:
Drinking tea is actually no different from all kinds of food that people usually eat.
I suggest you separate the time for drinking tea from the time for taking medicine 1 hour or more, so that you can get rid of the disease and enjoy the fragrance brought by tea.