Before taking lanthanum,
tell your doctor and pharmacist if you are allergic to lanthanum, any other medications, or any of the ingredients in lanthanum chewable tablets or oral powder. Ask your pharmacist for a list of the ingredients.
tell your doctor and pharmacist what prescription and nonprescription medications, vitamins, nutritional supplements, and herbal products you are taking or plan to take. Your doctor may tell you to take your medications at certain times before or after you take lanthanum, change the doses of your medications, or monitor you more carefully for side effects. Be sure to mention any of the following: calcium channel blockers such as amlodipine (Norvasc), diltiazem (Cardizem, Cartia, Diltzac, others), felodipine, isradipine, nicardipine (Cardene), nifedipine (Adalat, Afeditab, Procardia), nimodipine (Nymalize), nisoldipine (Sular), or verapamil (Calan, Covera, Verelan, in Tarka). If you are taking an angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor such as benazepril (Lotensin, in Lotrel), captopril, enalapril (Epaned, Vasotec), fosinopril, lisinopril (Qbrelis, Prinivil, in Zestoretic), moexipril, or perindopril (Aceon, in Prestalia); ampicillin; a tetracycline antibiotic such as demeclocycline, doxycycline (Doryx, Monodox, Oracea, others), minocycline (Dynacin, Minocin), or tetracycline (Achromycin V, in Pylera); a cholesterol-lowering medication (statins) such as atorvastatin (Lipitor) or rosuvastatin (Crestor); a medication for the treatment of malaria; or a thyroid medication such as levothyroxine (Levo-T, Synthroid, Tirosint, others), you should take it at least 2 hours before or 2 hours after you have taken lanthanum. Take fluoroquinolone antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin (Cipro), gemifloxacin (Factive), levofloxacin (Levaquin), or moxifloxacin (Avelox, Moxeza) at least 1 hour before or 4 hours after taking lanthanum. Many other medications may interact with lanthanum, so be sure to tell your doctor and pharmacist about all the medications you are taking, even if they do not appear on this list.
tell your doctor if you have paralytic ileus (condition in which digested food does not move through the intestines), or any condition where the bowels are blocked, including fecal impaction (a large amount of dry, hard stool stuck in the rectum). Your doctor will probably tell you not to take lanthanum.
tell your doctor if you have or have ever had an ulcer, ulcerative colitis (a condition which causes swelling and sores in the lining of the colon [large intestine] and rectum), peritonitis (inflammation of the lining of the stomach), Crohn's disease (a condition in which the body attacks the lining of the intestines causing pain, diarrhea, weight loss, and fever), stomach or colon cancer, diabetes, gastroparesis (slowed movement of food from the stomach to the small intestine), or if you have gastrointestinal problems such as ongoing constipation. Also tell your doctor if you ever had any kind of surgery on your stomach or intestines.
tell your doctor if you are pregnant, plan to become pregnant, or are breastfeeding. If you become pregnant while taking lanthanum, call your doctor.