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loop diuretic
Strongly increases the elimination of water and salt (oedema, heart failure). This molecule appears in 327 of the medicines we have indexed.
We do not make a formula for this treatment. Talk to your doctor or pharmacist about this active ingredient.
See the detailsBy the Layer Nutrition editorial teamHow the atlas classifies the 664 molecules
This molecule belongs to the “loop diuretic” category. Diuretics help the kidneys eliminate water and salt, which lowers blood pressure and relieves oedema.
In practice: Strongly increases the elimination of water and salt (oedema, heart failure). It is generally taken over the long term, with regular follow-up, and it is not stopped on one’s own initiative.
These names come from the public registers of 32 countries: the ANSM for France, the AEMPS for Spain, the AIFA for Italy, the HPRA for Ireland, Swissmedic for Switzerland, and the European Medicines Agency for the others.
Most widespread
No name matches.
The atlas gives each molecule one of these three answers. Most call for nothing.
On furosemide, the body loses more potassium and magnesium through the urine. Food helps rebuild these stores meal after meal.
Potassium is found in many fruits and vegetables. Among fruits: dried apricots, prunes, raisins, orange juice and banana. Among vegetables: potato, spinach, tomato and broccoli. Legumes such as beans and lentils also provide a good share.
Magnesium comes mainly from green leafy vegetables such as spinach, from legumes, nuts and seeds, as well as from whole grains. Several of these foods bring both minerals together, like spinach and lentils: including them in your meals covers a large part of your needs, alongside your treatment.
Furosemide is a loop diuretic. It acts in the kidney, on the thick ascending limb of the loop of Henle, where it blocks the sodium-potassium-2 chloride co-transporter, known as NKCC2. This transporter is the gateway through which sodium, potassium and chloride pass back from the urinary tubule into the blood. By inhibiting it, furosemide prevents this reabsorption, and both salt and water leave in greater quantity in the urine.
This action is powerful. At the molecular level, the NKCC2 co-transporter is itself regulated, after furosemide administration, by the cyclic GMP pathway and cGMP-dependent protein kinase I. By reducing the volume of water and salt retained by the body, furosemide relieves edema and helps lower blood pressure.
Furosemide is used first of all to clear an excess of fluid. It is indicated in the treatment of edema associated with congestive heart failure, liver cirrhosis and kidney diseases, including nephrotic syndrome. Taken orally, it can also be used in arterial hypertension, when the doctor seeks to reduce blood volume.
Its effect is rapid. After an oral dose, diuresis begins within 30 to 60 minutes, the maximum effect occurs within the first or second hour, and the duration of action is about 6 to 8 hours. The terminal half-life is around 2 hours, which explains a strong but relatively short action, to be repeated as prescribed.
Furosemide is usually taken once a day, in the morning. Since a dose acts for about 6 hours and increases urination, it is better not to take it after 4 p.m. or in the evening, otherwise you may have to get up during the night. Its oral absorption is incomplete and variable: in healthy fasting adults, bioavailability is about 64 percent from tablets and 60 percent from the oral solution, compared with intravenous injection.
Food intake can alter this absorption, which makes regularity all the more useful: keeping the same time and the same conditions from one day to the next stabilizes the effect. The treatment should not be stopped on your own, because interrupting the diuretic can allow water retention to return. Any dose change is decided with the doctor, who monitors blood pressure and symptoms.
By strongly increasing the elimination of salt and water, furosemide also shifts the balance of electrolytes. It can cause electrolyte abnormalities, such as hyponatremia, hypochloremia, hypokalemia and hypomagnesemia. Their frequency and intensity depend on the cumulative dose, which laboratory monitoring makes it possible to control.
Ototoxicity is a rarer effect: hearing disturbances that are most often transient and, exceptionally, permanent. It occurs mainly with high intravenous doses or during a rapid infusion, in cases of kidney failure, or when furosemide is combined with other drugs toxic to the ear such as aminoglycosides. These situations belong to the hospital setting rather than to daily oral use.
Beyond sodium, the inhibition of NKCC2 changes the transport of other minerals. By blocking this transporter in the thick ascending limb, furosemide dissipates the transepithelial electrical gradient and causes a marked urinary loss of calcium and magnesium. Magnesium depletion, or hypomagnesemia, is a frequent effect of loop diuretics, which makes magnesium one of the minerals to keep an eye on.
Furosemide also affects a water-soluble vitamin, thiamine, or vitamin B1. It increases its urinary excretion in a dose-dependent way: a study in healthy volunteers showed that low doses, given intravenously, already increase this loss. In heart failure patients treated over the long term, several works report varying degrees of thiamine deficiency, especially at high doses; the main mechanism is the increased urine output, with a possible direct inhibition of the cellular uptake of the vitamin.
Furosemide is involved in several interactions worth knowing. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs reduce its effectiveness and increase the renal risk. Its combination with aminoglycosides raises the risk of damage to the ear and kidney. It increases lithium levels, with a risk of lithium toxicity. Finally, the hypokalemia and hypomagnesemia it induces increase the toxicity of digoxin, which calls for particular vigilance in patients treated with this drug.
Monitoring therefore accompanies the treatment from start to finish. It relies on checking serum electrolytes, namely sodium, potassium, chloride, magnesium and calcium, on monitoring kidney function, blood pressure and symptoms, including hearing. This follow-up makes it possible to adjust the dose and to spot an imbalance early, in order to get the best from the diuretic while limiting its risks.
Beyond the plate, a single isolated nutrient can be worth discussing, to confirm with your doctor or pharmacist. Here is which one and in which form.
Magnesium is a mineral involved in many enzymatic reactions. Supplements differ mainly by their salt: organic forms such as bisglycinate and citrate are better tolerated digestively and better absorbed than oxide.
Preferred formbisglycinate or citrate rather than oxide
To be confirmed with your doctor or pharmacist.
Type the name written on the box. The atlas gives you its answer.
For example Panadol, Doliprane or paracetamol.
Furosemide is a loop diuretic: it increases the urinary elimination of water and salt, in situations such as fluid retention or high blood pressure. It is a prescription medicine. For your specific indication, refer to the leaflet and to your doctor or pharmacist.
The leaflet notably mentions increased urination and electrolyte imbalances, in particular a drop in potassium. Possible effects vary from one person to another: read the leaflet and report any symptom to your doctor or pharmacist.
Yes, the leaflet flags interactions, for example with lithium, certain aminoglycoside antibiotics and anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). Do not combine anything without confirmation: tell your doctor or pharmacist about all of your treatments and check the leaflet.
The literature on loop diuretics describes an increased urinary elimination of magnesium and potassium. A blood test, ordered and interpreted by your doctor, helps assess your situation.
If magnesium intake is relevant for you, magnesium in the bisglycinate form is generally well tolerated by the digestive system. Raise the question with your doctor, who will place it within your follow-up.
Potassium is strictly the doctor’s domain when on a diuretic: it is monitored with a blood test and is never added over the counter. Note that research links a magnesium deficiency to hypokalemia that is harder to correct, which makes medical follow-up all the more important.
These answers draw on the patient leaflet and on the published literature. For any question about your medicine, the patient leaflet and your doctor or pharmacist are the reference.
We will write to you the day your formula becomes available.