NEW YORK, Oct 20 (Reuters) -- Eating common foods -- including potatoes, tomatoes or eggplant -- several days before surgery may alter how your body will react to anesthesia, according to researchers from the University of Chicago Medical Center.
"Our results bring us one step closer to understanding why patients vary so widely in their sensitivity to certain anesthetic drugs," said Dr. Jonathan Moss, professor of anesthesia and critical care at the University of Chicago, Illinois, and director of the study. "We now suspect that much of the variability may be due to diet."
Anesthesiologists decide how much and what type of anesthetic to give patients based on age, weight and height, and liver and kidney function. "But those are only part of the picture," said Moss. "We need to fill in the rest, including genetic, and now, dietary factors. Only then can we predetermine the best dose of drugs to prevent pain and anxiety during an operation but leave the patient awake and alert soon afterwards."
The researchers found that ingesting even small amounts of natural substances found in potatoes, tomatoes and eggplants can markedly delay the ability to metabolize common anesthetic drugs.
These foods contain compounds called solanaceous glycoalkaloids (SGAs), which act as natural insecticides and protect plants from attack by animals, insects, or fungi.
But SGAs can also interfere with anesthesia by inhibiting two important enzymes found in humans, butyrylcholinesterase and acetylcholinesterase. "When these two enzymes are inactivated, the body cannot break down and get rid of certain commonly used anesthetics and muscle relaxants, so they continue to act long after they should have worn off," according to a statement issued by the American Society of Anesthesiologists.
Researchers found that blood levels of SGAs typical after eating moderate amounts of ordinary potatoes days before can significantly block these two human enzymes in lab studies. They presented the results of their study Tuesday at the annual meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists, held in Orlando.
It is not practical to test patients for SGA levels prior to surgery, said Moss. But pharmaceutical researchers designing new drugs "should begin to look for systems that don't rely on (these enzymes) to regulate drug metabolism," he added.
