Medicine-Related Gut Symptoms: What to Record
Understand digestive side effects from NSAIDs, antibiotics and opioids, and keep useful medicine and symptom notes for a pharmacist or prescriber.
A medicine may be helping one problem while making meals or bowel habits more difficult. That deserves a careful review, rather than a guess about which food is to blame.
Start your food and symptom diary
Understanding Medication-Induced GI Issues (NSAIDs/Antibiotics/Opioids)
Medicines can affect digestion in different ways. NSAIDs may irritate the stomach or cause ulcers and bleeding. Antibiotics can cause nausea or diarrhoea. Opioids such as codeine commonly cause constipation. Similar symptoms can have other causes too. [1] [2] [3]
Care and everyday food decisions
Ask a pharmacist or prescriber to review the exact medicine, dose and timing, including non-prescription products. They may recommend supportive treatment or a change. Follow urgent advice for serious reactions, and do not abruptly stop a regularly used opioid without medical guidance. [3]
Keeping a useful personal record
Keep the medicine name, dose as prescribed, start or change date and symptom timing alongside meals and bowel habits. Record any remedies you tried. One Food Forward can help prepare a medicines review, but cannot determine a side effect's cause or decide which medicine to stop.
Related reading: Peptic Ulcer Disease; Chronic Constipation.
Should I test the cause by stopping a medicine?
Speak to a pharmacist or prescriber first. Some medicines need a planned change or taper. Serious symptoms need urgent care rather than an experiment with food or doses. [1] [2] [3]
Keep the details somewhere you can find them
There is no need to tell the whole story at once. Start with today’s meal, a symptom or a few words about how you felt. Those small entries give you something to return to when it is time to talk about your care.
Sources and further reading
Your healthcare team should guide diagnosis, treatment and changes to your diet or medicines.
Spotted something that needs correcting? Contact One Food Forward support and include this page’s address.