Importance of pharmacology knowledge by dietitians

A great part of the population is under pharmacological treatment or takes herbal or other kinds of supplements. The influences between drugs and food/diet are of increasing interest for different reasons: - The increasing importance and detection of food-drug interactions; - The importance of an integrated dietetic-pharmacological treatment in diseases as diabetes mellitus, hypertension, hyperlipidaemia, etc; - The use of drugs and supplements in obesity; - The influence of diet in improving the nutritional status and reduction of drug adverse reactions in cancer and AIDS treatments.

Therefore, dieticians need to have a broad knowledge of pharmacology, especially in the areas described before. In the dietician curriculum of the students of our school we have integrated applied pharmacology. We have worked in order to orient and adapt our pharmacology program to these specific subjects. This will provide the dietician with skills in order to obtain the optimum outcome in the treatment of their patients, working in a multidisciplinary team (nurses, physicians, pharmacists, physiotherapists, etc.).