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•
Farm les...
COPLEY PHOTO BY JAM ES C. SVEHLA
m.
helping families.
Yad Ezra provides kosher food packages to 1,000 families
every month. The families helped by Yad Ezra include:
■ the elderly ■ working poor ■ disabled ■ single parents
■ new Americas ■ those in emergency situations.
With your help, all families in our community can enjoy a
nutritious and satisfying meal.
V
ti
•
$ 18.00
A weekday meal for 3 small families
A Holiday meal for 4 small families
$ 36.00
$ 50.00
A Shabbat meal for 5 small families
A Holiday meal for 4 large families
$ 72.00
A year of Holiday meals for 1 family
$ 100.00
A year of Holiday meals for 2 families
$ 200.00
A year of Shabbat meals for 1 small family $ 500.00
Enclosed is my check in the amount of
as a tax deductable contribution to Yad Ezra
to help feed the Jewish hungry. Your contribution is eligible for
a 50% Pilichigan Tax Credit (subject to certain limitations).
Name
Address
City
Zip
Phone
State
Make checks payable to Yad Ezra or
charge your contribution to your VISA/Mastercard or Discover.
(Minimum suggested donation - $18.00)
Card No.
Exp.Date
Signature
Name
Mail to: 26641 Harding ■ Oak Park, MI 48237
Tributes and Memorials available.
YAD EZRA
feeding tire Jew/gb Horn
For more information
call 810-548-3663
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THE JEWISH NEWS
Food Fight
Specific foods can significantly alter the effectiveness of certain medicines.
LISA LELAND SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
I
f your diet includes everything
from bananas and brussels
sprouts to sour cream and
sausage, indigestion might not
be your only worry.
All of these foods can become
problem foods in combination
with certain medications. Medi-
cine, like food, must be broken
down by the body before its nu-
trients can go to work.
What can throw a monkey
wrench into the mission is a com-
petition between certain foods
and drugs to be absorbed or me-
tabolized by the body, sometimes
diminishing the drug's effective-
ness and/or causing an adverse
reaction.
Finding out which foods are
potential culprits to which drugs
is the basis for many medical
studies, including recent ones fo-
cused specifically on the interac-
tions found between grapefruit
juice and various medications.
Studies have shown that tak-
ing medicine with grapefruit juice
can cause drugs to stay in the
body longer and at a higher lev-
el than normal, according to an
article in the Medical Letter on
Drugs and Therapeutics, a New
York publication issued to phar-
macists.
While grapefruit juice seems
to have a beneficial reaction in
the absorption of the anti-rejec-
tion drug cyclosporine, reducing
the need for higher dosages, it is
shown to compete with some an-
tibiotics like erythromycin, some
sedatives and antianxiety agents,
such as the sleeping medication
Halcion, as well as the calcium
Lisa Leland writes for Copley
News Service.
channel-blocker felodipine, a
heart medicine under the com-
mercial name Plendil.
Anyone taking any of these
drugs should avoid grapefruit
juice altogether.
`There's a lot of literature out
there on what effects grapefruit
might have, but I really haven't
seen it all sorted out yet," said
John Donnici, a doctor of phar-
macy and clinical coordinator of
pharmacy services at Central Du-
Page Hospital in Winfield, Ill.
"It's a matter of increased ab-
sorption or decreased absorption
and the potential for problems."
The idea
is moderation and
limiting the
servings.
As a rule of thumb, said Don-
nici, the optimum drink for swal-
lowing medicine is water, and it
is recommended that at least a
half to a full glass of water be con-
sumed to aid medicine in reach-
ing its destination.
The key to knowing which
beverages or foods should be
avoided or moderated for each
prescription drug is a matter of
asking the pharmacist.
By law, pharmacists in every
state are required to offer pa-
tients medical counseling with
the dispensation of each pre-
scription drug.
A plan aimed to end patients'
errors in use of medication and
provide better information about
their prescription drugs was ap-
proved recently by Health Sec-
retary Donna Shalala. Under the
voluntary plan, pharmacists are
encouraged to distribute a stan-
dardized pamphlet to everyone
who receives a new prescription,
outlining the drug's uses as well
as issuing warnings about side
effects and food interactions.
"If people really understand
why they must watch certain
foods and what will happen if
they don't, they will comply," said
Pat Traver, a licensed dietician
at Central DuPage Hospital who
provides patients with guidance
in regard to their medications.
"With 10,000 new drugs avail-
able in the last 10 years, it can be
so confusing, especially when
you're taking prescription drugs
in combination with other pre-
scription drugs. (Interactions) is
a very difficult subject to keep
track of for the pharmacist, let
alone the physician or the pa-
tient."
One drug where it is critical
patients follow food interaction
guidelines is the anticoagulant
Coumadin,
Green leafy vegetables, as-
paragus, broccoli, spinach and
Brussels sprouts, all containing
Vitamin K, decrease the effec-
tiveness of the drug when eaten
in significant amounts. Howev-
er, this does not mean patients
must completely outlaw the nu-
trient-packed vegetables from
their diets.
`The American public tends to
be black and white when it comes
to instructions from the doctor,
and I think people are almost too
extreme," said Traver. `The idea
is moderation and limiting the
number of servings, but not giv-