Have you ever met with a situation when you took a pill, but it did not work properly or gave severe side effects because of some other drug or food? These situations are called drug interactions. Such situations occur when the effect of a particular medicine is unexpectedly changed when it is taken together with another medicine, or together with some food products.

On some web sites, there exist the so-called drug interactions checkers – online programs that figure out possible consequences if drug interactions when provided a list of drugs and foods.

A typical Drug Interaction Checker has a wide database of different medicines, their main effects, side effects and possible results of interaction. It explains the mechanism of how the drugs you take interact with each other, and may also display any interactions between certain drugs and different kinds of food. It also represents the measure of influence of the interaction on your body (which could be significant, moderate or insignificant).

Some Drug Interaction checkers may also provide recommendations on measures that one should take in order to bring down the negative consequences of an interaction.