Important drug-micronutrient interactions: A selection for clinical practice

Abstract

Interactions between drugs and micronutrients have received only little or no attention in the medical and pharmaceutical world in the past. Since more and more pharmaceutics are used for the treatment of patients, this topic is increasingly relevant. As such interactions – depending on the duration of treatment and the status of micronutrients – impact the health of the patient and the action of the drugs, physicians and pharmacists should pay more attention to such interactions in the future. This review aims to sensitize physicians and pharmacists on drug micronutrient interactions with selected examples of widely pescribed drugs that can precipitate micronutrient deficiencies. In this context, the pharmacist, as a drug expert, assumes a particular role. Like no other professional in the health care sector, he is particularly predestined and called up to respond to this task. The following article intends to point out the relevance of mutual interactions between micronutrients and various examples of widely used drugs, without claiming to be exhaustive.

Keywords:

• Micronutrient
• drug
• interactions
• proton pump inhibitors
• vitamin B12
• magnesium
• Metformin
• thiazide diuretics
• statins
• selenium
• vitamin D
• coenzyme Q10

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).