When you are in the doctor or pharmacist will tell you after prescribing the medicine: "The medicine needs to be taken before meals" or "The medicine needs to be eaten with a regular meal", etc. How long does it take before meals? Ten minutes, half an hour, two hours? Some people think that using it on an empty stomach is equivalent to taking it before a meal. If you take the medicine on an empty stomach, you can eat immediately after taking the medicine; or take the medicine for more than two or three hours after the meal as taking it after the meal..., but the above are all wrong concepts.
The so-called "before meal" should be "empty"
"empty" means that the medicine does not come into contact with food in the stomach, that is, "more than one hour before starting the meal" or "at least two hours after finishing the meal".
Common reasons for taking medicines on an empty stomach are:
1. Reduce food interference absorption and ensure efficacy
0 The effective ingredients of oral medicines must be absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract into the blood and then brought to the whole body from the blood. During this journey, the most common factor affecting absorption is food. Some medicines have reduced their absorption of food, resulting in reduced efficacy. For example:
●Bisphosphate drugs to prevent osteoporosis, such as Alendronate Sodium Cholecalciferol (comprising Alendronate Sodium Cholecalciferol) must be taken 1 hour before meals and taken with boiled water, because other beverages may also interfere with Fushanmei's absorption.
●Berke film-coated ingots are the most stringent. They need to be more than two hours before and after meals to ensure that this expensive and powerful drug can enter the body and achieve the best results.
●Some drugs that work on local drugs such as Sucralfate suspension used to treat gastric ulcers. The reason for use on an empty stomach is that the ulcer is sufficiently acidic to form a stable protective film.
2. Reduce side effects
Some drugs will affect gastrointestinal tract function. For example, Bethanechol (the product name is Shujieding) that improves urination will increase gastrointestinal peristalsis after use. Using this drug on an empty stomach can avoid side effects of gastrointestinal discomfort, nausea, and vomiting caused by taking the medicine.
3. Related to human clinical trial design
Some anti-cancer oral target drugs such as Desolate film-coated ingots (component Erlotinib) and Taijia ingots (component Lapatinib ditosylate). During the clinical trial design, the trial patients used these drugs on an empty stomach to evaluate their clinical efficacy. Although it was later found that food would increase the content of these drugs in the body, due to the lack of clinical efficacy evaluation and the possibility of increasing the risk of side effects, I hope that the patients can still use them on an empty stomach.
"After meal" is generally defined as "within two hours after meal", and the correct name should be "After meal"
medicine medicine taking with meal is as follows:
1. Reduce side effects
Most medicines taken with meal are the side effects of reducing gastrointestinal discomfort, such as non- sterol anti-inflammatory painkillers, calcium tablets, iron , Kuluhua ingot (includes Metformin)... etc.
2. Ensure the efficacy
●Slow the absorption of sugar by inhibiting the gastrointestinal tract enzyme , such as sugar ingot (in Acarbose); or reduce fat absorption, such as Luoche Fresh Capsules (in Orlistat), which should be taken immediately before taking the first bite of rice to allow these enzymes to be inhibited in time.
●Some drugs such as Fenofibrate (component fenofibrate) that reduces triglyceride lipid in the blood, and Keduoyu membrane-coated lipid (component Valganciclovir) used to treat viral infections, all use it in combination with food to increase the amount of body absorption and achieve clinical efficacy.
3. Special reasons
In the past literature recommends taking oral hypoglycemia drugs. You need to take medicine 30 minutes before meals. In this way, the food is absorbed into the stomach and has time to lower blood sugar. But sometimes after the patient forgets to eat after taking the medicine, the blood sugar may be too low, causing life-threatening. In order to avoid the side effects of hypoglycemia, and the absorption rate of oral hypoglycemia drugs has also accelerated, it is recommended to take hypoglycemia drugs at the beginning of the meal.
Starting today, let us use the correct concepts of "meal with food" and "empty" to take medicine.If someone takes multiple medicines, how should he arrange the time to take the medicine? It is recommended that you tell the pharmacist and doctor all the medicines you are taking, and the pharmacist will arrange your medication time to achieve the best absorption, minimum side effects, least interference with normal work and rest, and least forgetful results.
