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Let me preface this by saying I am not a doctor and this information should be confirmed with your husband’s doctor and other pharmacists:
Before the MAO-B inhibitor Azilect (rasagiline) (approved 2006), another drug named selegiline (approved 1989) was widely prescribed as an MAO-B inhibitor. Selegiline had tyramine warnings and interactions. When Azilect was first approved it carried the same tyramine warnings since it was the same class of medication. After a sizeable population had used Azilect for a number of years I believe the FDA revised the prescribing information for Azilect to remove the tyramine dietary restrictions. I think doctors and pharmacists still advise caution out of an overabundance of caution. I wouldn’t eat a lot of stilton cheese but anything else should be fine. I’ve never had any issues over the past 2.5 years. Again, please verify with your doctor and do your own research.
Another advantage of Azilect over Selegiline is that Selegiline breaks down into the metabolites methamphetamine and amphetamine which causes insomnia. Metabolism of Azilect is different and doesn’t have these same metabolites and doesn’t have the same insomnia issues that people experienced with Selegiline.
Think of Azilect as a new and improved version of the older MAO-B inhibitor Selegiline.
The thing you really need to pay attention to with any MAO-B inhibitor including Azilect are the drug interactions! Always check with your pharmacist before taking anything, even OTC meds and herbal remedies while on Azilect. It interacts with dextromethorphan (cough syrup), tramadol, St John’s wort, Flexeril, sinus meds, Visine eye drops, etc. My doctor told me to tell my dentist to use lidocaine only for fillings and avoid anything with epinephrine which includes almost every standard anesthetic used by dentists except plain lidocaine. Before any surgery, your husband may need to discontinue Azilect for a couple of weeks to avoid interactions with anesthesia meds.
Hope this helps.