“Give me malaria drug and add a multivitamin or blood tonic to it”.
This is a common statement you hear at pharmacies in Nigeria.
But from what a family physician told us, this may just be one reason malaria drug administered on some persons appears not to be effective.
As people make these malaria drug and blood tonic combo demand, they hardly care.
But the extent to which this could be damaging was unknown to us until we had a chat with a Consultant Family Physician and the Medical Director at Nathaniel Health Consulting, Dr. Ademola Orolu.
According to the doctor, patients most times request for blood tonic or tablets while or after treating infections.
The layman’s belief is that the malaria drug destroys red blood cells. They assume this happens during the killing of the Plasmodium parasites that causes the infection.
Explaining what happens during the treatment of malaria, Dr Orolu pointed out that some infections could reduce the amount of red blood cells in the body.
“We, however, need to know that these infections must be severe to cause serious drop in the level of red cells.
“Malarial fever typically presents in two forms.
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“The more common one is that which needs just three days of use of oral antimalarial medications. This results in cure in most individuals.
“The second one is a severe form of malaria.
“This always requires admission for the individual to get better.
“This severe form of malaria can cause damage in many organs of the body,” he said.
Wrong Assumption About Red Blood Cell
One of the damages this could cause is reduction in the red blood cell level.
“To assume that one’s red cell levels have dropped as a result of infections is wrong.
“The commonly used antibiotics or antimalarial medications do not destroy the blood.
“They attack the organism causing the infection only without a side effect of reduced red blood cell level,” the doctor explained.
Malaria Parasites Feed On Iron
Now, here is the reason malaria drug should not be taken with blood tonic.
It is important for us to note that malarial parasite feeds on iron.
So, in the presence of iron which blood tonic supplies, the parasite is well fed and increases in number.
“This will therefore negatively affect the effectiveness of the medication used in treating malarial infection.
Likewise, iron is a growth factor for some bacteria.
“Using antibiotics and blood tonic (containing iron of course) together during treatment of bacterial infection is like supplying enemies with ammunition while one still tries to kill them,” he warned.
“If the doctor suspects red blood cell level to be low during examination, it must be confirmed by a very simple blood test.
“Just looking at the palms or the eyes is not enough proof that red blood level is low.”
You may also find our article on Malaria: 6 Natural Remedies And Why They Work helpful
However, if the result proves that the blood level is low, so long the level is not too low, which is decided by the doctor, the patients will build their red cells when they begin to eat adequately.
This emphasises the need for the body to be fed with balanced diets.
It supplies the body with the necessary nutrients to build blood without helping infectious organisms grow.
Dr. Orolu further pointed out that if the blood test shows that the level is too low for the body’s ability to produce fresh red blood cells, the doctor may recommend blood tonic or tablets AFTER the infection must have been cured.
For instance, a doctor could recommend blood tonic after you have finished your medications and you are hale and hearty.
In very extreme cases of reduced red blood cell level, blood transfusion becomes necessary.
Kindly share this article on your social network to help your friends and loved ones know the danger of taking malaria drug with blood tonic.
thank you so very much,the article was most enlightening and incisive .
This is one of the best medical articles I’ve read in recent times. I recently combined Astyfer and Amatem soft gel to treat my malaria symptoms. Guess what, I fell sick again after one day. I think I’ve really learned a lot from this write up.
Thanks for sharing.
Thank you so much Joshua. We appreciate the comment and the fact that you shared your experience too.
I once check this assertion about not taking multivitamin and blood tonic with malaria on WHO website.The response I got was that there was no scientific report to back this up.
As a microbiologist what I believe is that every drug has a specific target in organism and where there is a drug combination that will not affect the potency of one another that drugs can be combined.
Let me speak like a lay man,if you take a poison and still take a blood tonic , despite that the blood tonic will help your growth you will still die.
I think this assertion should be scientifically proof rather than doctors coming up with person view without scientific basis.
If malaria drugs fails it might be to some factors,naybe resistance and more so we havevmany fake drugs around.
We have observed about three people mostly children that starts doing wel and their health improve greatly when they started taking blood tonic during malaria treatment.
Let know sickness come when body immunity is low and giving them something to boost the immune system will help greatly.
Well said. However, one thing we will ask, do doctors recommend Malaria drugs and blood tonic at the same time? Please, direct us to such a doctor and we will have his side of the story published here.
Also, we know that the fact that research has not found the relationship between a thing and another does not mean it could not exist.
That was a doctor speaking there and we know how much reliance people have on doctors in our society.
Very interesting, impressive and impacting. A box full of medical reasonings. Thanks for the clarity.
Interesting and impacting. Now I’m very clear
What if the patient is feeling fatigued and dizzy, feeling like fainting?
Thank you very I’ve learnt a lot.
More respect to our doctors