Effects of drugs on nutrition

Drugs can increase nutrient requirements through various mechanisms and if these requirements are not met by dietary modification or provision of nutrient supplements, deficiency disease will result. Commoner nutritional effects of drugs consist in the insidious development of hypovitaminoses; other serious nutritional consequences of drug intake include growth impairment and, in the case of vitamin antagonists, poisoning through interference with metabolic processes dependent on the activity of vitamins or coenzymes. Interactions may exist between pharmacologic agents and nutrients with respect to their absorption, transport, metabolism and excretion. Single drugs can cause nutrient depletion by more than one mechanism and multiple drug regimens can deplete nutrient stores by a synergistic effect. Risks of drug-induced malnutrition with drugs increase with dose and duration of intake, marginal diets and co-existence of disease which increases requirements for the same nutrients that are affected by the drug.     

Spanish late Pliocene and early Pleistocene hominid, palaeolithic and faunal finds from Orce (Granada) and Cueva Victoria (Murcia)

In SE Spain, recent excavations in the Orce basin and at Cueva Victoria indicate presence of both hominids and hominid activity from the Plio-Pleistocene boundary and early Lower Pleistocene.