Balancing diet and medicines

My internist has advised me to go on a high-fiber, low-cholesterol, low-salt diet to reduce cholesterol and blood pressure. I am supposed to eat lots of vegetables and bran with my oatmeal. My wife even got me a salt substitute.

The problem is that my cardiologist says I need to avoid green vegetables because I take Coumadin to thin blood. I'm also on lisinopril for blood pressure and Lanoxin for my heart. I would appreciate any information about diet and nutrition with respect to my medications.

Your wife was trying to help, but don't use the salt substitute. Most such products contain potassium. Taken in combination with an ACE-inhibitor blood-pressure pill like lisinopril, a salt substitute could raise potassium to dangerous levels.

Take Lanoxin an hour before or two hours after you eat bran for breakfast. A meal rich in fiber may reduce the amount of Lanoxin absorbed.

You should not avoid green vegetables; they are essential for good health. But the vitamin K in such foods may counteract the effectiveness of Coumadin. If you eat roughly the same amount of vitamin K daily, the dose of Coumadin can be adjusted accordingly.



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How does red tea (rooibos) compare with green and black teas for health attributes?

Rooibos, or "red bush" tea, is a South African beverage from the leaves of the shrub Aspalathus linearis. Unlike green or black teas (both made from the leaves of Camellia sinensis), rooibos has no caffeine or other stimulants. It has antioxidant flavonoids, though not as much as either green or black teas.

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Joe Graedon, a pharmacologist, and Teresa Graedon, an expert in medical anthropology and nutrition, can be reached at peoplespharmacy@gmail.com.