Nutrient-Drug Interactions

Nutrient-Drug Interactions

Nutrient-Drug Interactions

  • Have you ever encountered a situation in which you experienced (or had another person experience) a drug (OTC or prescription), herbal, or supplement-nutrient interaction? If so, explain what it was. If you have not, research a common interaction and explain it. Your explanation should include what drugs, herbs, or supplements and nutrient(s) are involved as well as the possible result of the interaction. Note that you are not to report on the side effects of a drug, herb or supplement, but rather how these might interact with a nutrient (in foods or in supplemental form) and result in a negative effect.
  • When you looked for information on the interaction where did you look? How were your questions or concerns addressed?
  • Where, in your experience, does the public turn to for information on drugs, herbs, or supplements? Are these sources usually reputable? How would you determine if a source, whether a person or an article or other, is reputable?
  • Do you think healthcare professionals have met the challenge of helping people find suitable nutritional supplements? Why or why not? How might socioeconomic status come into play when choosing between or within prescription medications or OTC medications/supplements/herbs? If someone needed to determine if nutrient status was being compromised because of an interaction, what tests could be done?

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.