By Mutolib Jubril
In a culinary twist that defies conventional wisdom, Musa, a budding professional, has ingeniously turned his nightly meal into a battleground against acid reflux. By incorporating his medication into his eba dinner, he’s not just dining; he’s pioneering a unique strategy that could revolutionize how he approaches this widespread discomfort.
However, his condition deteriorated as Musa continued to experience frequent episodes of heartburn and indigestion, affecting his quality of life.
Concerned about his worsening condition, he sought advice from his healthcare personnel who explained that the dense nature of eba could interfere with the medication’s effectiveness and exacerbate his symptoms.
Following the doctor’s prescription, he stopped mixing his medication with food and began taking it with water. Consequently, his symptoms improved significantly, enabling him to enjoy meals without discomfort.
“ I stopped mixing medication with food and began taking it separately with water.”
In many regions, staple dishes like Eba, Fufu, and Amala are not just popular but essential parts of daily life. However, there are growing concerns about mixing medicines with these starchy foods and how it might affect the effectiveness of the drugs.
Pharmacists Insight
According to pharmacist Yusuf Hasan Wanda in his insightful words, Incorporating drugs in swallow foods like amala and fufu might affect their efficacy depending on which type of food is being mixed.
Not only taking some drugs with food, but even the presence of food in the stomach and small intestine can make certain drugs less effective or increase the risk of adverse effects, including prescription drugs and over-the-counter drugs.
He stated that consulting a health care professional is paramount before taking a particular prescription with a swallow food.
“It will be better to talk to your doctor or pharmacist when you think you would like to use a drug with a swallow in it. Some drugs disintegrate or dissolve faster from the mouth which means that putting them in food means bypassing those processes. Some are sublingual to be absorbed under the tongue, that means bypassing that process. Different drugs have different mechanisms of absorption and need to be adhered to.”
Experts Weigh In
In an interview with The News Digest Press, Dr Abubakar Yusuf, a pharmacologist, provided an explanation on the production of drugs—noting that any medications are formulated to be absorbed at specific rates, and food can interfere with that process.
According to him, the physical characteristics of swallow foods, which are heavy and dense, could potentially alter the release and absorption of the medication in the digestive system.”
“The consistency and timing of food intake can affect drug absorption. High-fibre foods like amala might bind with certain drugs and reduce their absorption. This doesn’t mean one cannot eat these foods at all, but timing matters. Taking medication with water and consuming meals a little later is usually advisable.”
In an interview with Dr. Fuad-deen Olabisi Kekere-ekun MD also noted “ that incorporating drugs on swallow foods like eba, fufu, is done to ease the swallowing of the drug most times and it really helps a great deal.”
“But it has been observed that this action can delay the digestion of the drugs because the food surrounding the drug prevents adequate direct use of some of the enzymes that are necessary for the digestion of the drug.”
Speaking, he explained that the drug might not be fully digested as it will be excreted out of the body as it was taken.
“In extreme cases we see situations where the food ball is excreted inside faeces with the drug inside it still intact. What this means is that it is possible to eject the drug from the body the same way it was ingested into the body which means the drug didn’t digest at all in the body before leaving the body.”
“So care needs to be taken when doing this. The food must be very light and easily dissolve to prevent it from coming out of the body undigested,” he advised.