Beta blockers reaction with other meds

[Claire2006]

I live in turkey and take beloc. What antihistamines are ok to take on beta blockers. Is there any ingredient to look out for?

[CDreamer]

I would suggest that you need to get specific advice from a pharmacist who is familiar with your medications. We are not competent to give advice only personal experience,

[ILowe in reply to CDreamer]

My experience as an expat is that doctors rarely check interactions before prescribing. When asked, they rarely know about them and are frequently very blasé /unconcerned. They seem to work on the basis of: solve that problem if it arises. A colleague of mine warned me of similar experience. Her husband had been twice in Intensive Care because of interactions.

Outside UK, you cannot rely on a pharmacist. I have found I cannot even expect them to understand simple school level chemistry. I once was struggling to ask for some hydrogen peroxide. Struggling because of language. In frustration I wrote out the formula: H202, and they could not even read it!!!

So, do your own homework. If you do not understand the results, then print them out and ask the doctor to explain them. I use the following sites:

drugs.com/drug_interactions...

webmd.com/interaction-check...

rxlist.com/drug-interaction...

reference.medscape.com/drug...

The other problem is finding international equivalent names. For that, I go to drugs.com and they have an international list, though I must admit it is not the easiest site to navigate.

[ILowe]

Beloc is Metaprolol. The trouble is that the drugs checkers tend to work with specific names, so "Antihistamines" might be too broad.

I highly recommend to anyone living outside the UK that they obtain a copy of the British National Formularly, or know how to get it online. This enables you to check dosages, and it has a very helpful concise appendix on Interactions.

Also, there are differences between the interactions checkers I mentioned. I like the one on drugs.com the best, since they give clear explanations and have professional notes if you want them.