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Taking Doxycycline For Lyme Disease. Taking Medicines For Congestive Heart Failure. Should Calcium Be Kept Away From Doxycycline?
Question: I'm taking doxycycline for Lyme Disease. I also have CHF and am taking several drugs for that...I'm wondering if any have calcium and should be kept some time away from my dose of doxy.....I take amiodarone, mexiletine, carvedilol, enamapril, furosemide, aspirin and co-Q 10...
Hi! Thank you for your question and welcome to our site.
The different drugs you mentioned may have various preparations depending on the brand. But from what I know, out of all the drugs you mentioned, only aspirin may have calcium. Amiodarone and mexiletine are usually prepared as a hydrochloride salt, enalapril is prepared with maleate, carvedilol with phosphate, co-Q10 is an enzyme (which also has some beneficial but not very well studied effects on Lyme disease), and furosemide with magnesium. To be sure which preparation you are taking, you may have to ask your pharmacist.
Doxycycline is usually prepared as a hydrochloride salt when in tablets and capsules. The oral syrup preparation is the one that contains calcium. Compared to the rest of the tetracycline antibiotics, doxycycline has the least affinity for calcium ions. When you are taking aspirin (which may have the calcium ions), multivitamins, or even milk and juices enriched with calcium, give a 2hour interval between taking doxycycline and them so that the absorption of doxycycline won't be impaired. Take this antibiotic with a full glass of water.
I hope I was able to answer your question. If you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to ask them.
Take care!
Dr. Galera
The different drugs you mentioned may have various preparations depending on the brand. But from what I know, out of all the drugs you mentioned, only aspirin may have calcium. Amiodarone and mexiletine are usually prepared as a hydrochloride salt, enalapril is prepared with maleate, carvedilol with phosphate, co-Q10 is an enzyme (which also has some beneficial but not very well studied effects on Lyme disease), and furosemide with magnesium. To be sure which preparation you are taking, you may have to ask your pharmacist.
Doxycycline is usually prepared as a hydrochloride salt when in tablets and capsules. The oral syrup preparation is the one that contains calcium. Compared to the rest of the tetracycline antibiotics, doxycycline has the least affinity for calcium ions. When you are taking aspirin (which may have the calcium ions), multivitamins, or even milk and juices enriched with calcium, give a 2hour interval between taking doxycycline and them so that the absorption of doxycycline won't be impaired. Take this antibiotic with a full glass of water.
I hope I was able to answer your question. If you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to ask them.
Take care!
Dr. Galera
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Shanthi.E
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