A member of my family has osteo-perosis and takes Caltrate 600+D(2 a day). At the same time as this, she takes Norvasc because of high blood pressure.
I went to http://www.personalpath.com and typed in these two drugs and found out that they have an interaction. Being a regular person with no medical training, I can’t make out what it means. Here’s the link.
I hope the link works. Anyway, can you explain what the deal is with this? Is the interaction serious, atleast serious enough to warrant an appointment with the doctor to inquire further?
You should be able to call up a pharmacist and get an answer fairly quickly to this question. A pharmacist will probably know the answer better than a doctor or nurse. And a pharmacist will gladly answer this call without making you go in or charging you a fee.
I couldn’t get into the site you linked to see what they were talking about, but taking recommended dosages of a calcium supplement like Caltrate + D shouldn’t affect the action of Norvasc.
Norvasc is one of the antihypertensive drugs classified as a calcium channel blocker. It inhibits the movement of calcium ions across cell membranes in the smooth muscle of arteries. The arteries tend to relax, there’s less resistance to blood flow and blood pressure goes down.
This all works at a cellular level that hasn’t been found to be significantly affected by dietary calcium supplements…something that both her pharmacist and prescribing physician should be able to verify.