Grapefruit juice is one of the healthiest foods around, right?


A cup of unsweetened white grapefruit juice has only 100 calories, no fat, more than 100% of the recommended daily amount of vitamin C, and it s got a zingy taste that can really get you moving in the morning.


However, grapefruit juice (including the juice found in your morning grapefruit half) can interact with certain medications, leading to potentially serious consequences.


Which medications does grapefruit juice interact with?



Grapefruit juice can interact with many different drugs that people take to maintain their health. If you eat grapefruit or drink grapefruit juice, you should ask your prescribing health care provider and pharmacist about any drugs that you re currently

Managing Your Business; What Makes It Tick?
...with a choice of retail outlet will go elsewhere. Customers with no choice of retail outlet may choose to utilise another source of other goods as a substitute for the goods sold by the retail outlet. Organisations who deliver value ...
taking and ask again whether new drugs interact with grapefruit juice. The list below contains some of the drugs that interact with grapefruit juice. This is not a complete list, so if you re a grapefruit fan, check with your doctor before starting any medication.


* Valium (diazepam): This drug is used to treat certain seizure disorders and anxiety.


* Norvasc (amlodipine): This is one of the drugs called a calcium channel blocker. It is used to treat angina (chest pain related to malfunctioning arteries around the heart). Grapefruit juice interacts with many of the calcium channel blockers


* Pravachol (pravastatin): Like several of the statin drugs used to lower cholesterol, grapefruit juice can change the

Choosing The Right Clown For Your Child
...and Nietzsche, and the kids just keep getting lost in this. Fifth, he or she gets himself ready for his or her "disappearing" trick, using your wide-screen television and a moving van. Here is the next batch of the signs ...
effectiveness of this product


* Cordarone (Amiodarone): This drug is used to treat arrhythmias to correct irregular heart beat patterns.


What Are The Symptoms of These Interactions?


Use of any of these drugs while taking grapefruit juice can lead to serious complications. For example, the following have been observed in the interaction of each of the drugs above with grapefruit juice:


* Valium (diazepam): Grapefruit juice can cause you to feel sedated and might make it harder for you to control your muscular movements; driving can be dangerous


* Norvasc (amlodipine): Grapefruit interacts with several of the calcium channel blockers to provide a very fast heartrate ( tachycardia ) and/or a drop in blood pressure to

Will Alternative Therapies Work with Warfarin?
...of anticoagulation associated with its use. Warfarin/Herbal Interactions In their article, Potential Interactions Between Alternative Therapies and Warfarin, researchers A.M. Heck, B.A. DeWitt, and A.L. Lukes examined warfarin in greater depth. The research team noted that the issue of alternative ...
below safe levels ( hypotension.


* Pravachol (pravastatin): The statin drugs can interact with grapefruit juice to cause muscle toxicities, symptoms of which include muscle weakness, aches and shaking


* Cordarone (Amiodarone): Ironically, mixing this drug with grapefruit juice can cause an increase in the very condition it is intended to treat - arrhythmias


What Causes These Potentially Dangerous Interactions?


How can something as seemingly harmless as grapefruit juice affect the medications you take? It has to do with a special enzyme in your intestines and liver that help you absorb many oral drugs and then excrete them when you re done with the drug.


When a physician prescribes a specific dose of drug (for example, one pill of

Another Type of Hepatitis: The Hepatitis C
...all are causes of hepatitis C. Far more worse than this is that in some contries, the contamination with hepatitis C has been made through a national program which was actually trying to help people. There was a vaccination campain ...
50 mg), she works on the assumption that given the size of your body, you will absorb the drug into your body at a certain rate and excrete it at a certain rate. Enzymes in your gastrointestinal (or GI) tract bring food and oral medications into your body. Grapefruit juice seems to affect both the rate of the drug coming into your body and how quickly it is removed. The end result can be an overdose of the drug) even if you re taking the correct dosage for your size.


What Can I Do To Avoid Dangerous Drug Interactions?


If you are on medications that interact with grapefruit juices, avoid eating grapefruit or drinking grapefruit juice. Spacing out the drugs

Successful Addiction Treatments
...been found to be very effective including both residential and outpatient approaches. Integration of both types of treatments is proved to be the most effective approach for treating addiction. This may include adding to or removing from an individual's treatment ...
and the juice (for example, taking your medication at night and having grapefruit for breakfast) will NOT solve the problem; the grapefruit juice effect remains even after you ve stopped having it. If you like the health benefits of grapefruit, or just miss that morning zing, think about moving to other fruits such as tomatoes (a single can has just 41 calories and more than 70% of the vitamin C for the day) or oranges.


Kharasch, E. Influence of hepatic and intestinal cytochrome P4503A activity on the acute disposition and effects of oral transmucosal fentanyl citrate, Anesthesiology, Volume 101, issue 3, pages 729-737, 2004


Maskalyk, J., Grapefruit juice: potential drug interactions, Canadian Medical Association Journal, Volume

The Road Less Travelled ... Three Steps to Overcoming Alcoholism and Drug Addiction ...
...live in a certain extent of denial whether it be around our relationships, jobs, state of health or the true nature of our addictions. It happens, we're human. But to move forward, learn and grow from an experience you've got ...
167 issue 3, p 279-80, 2002


Shapiro, L, Drug interactions: Proteins, pumps, and P-450s, Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, Volume 47, issue 4, pages 467-84, 2002


Copyright (C) Shoppe.MD and Ian Mason, 2004-2005


Ian Mason, owner of Shoppe.MD, your source for [http://www.shoppe.md] Online Prescription Medications, drug information and support forums.


Ian is a fat-to-fit student of health, weight loss, exercise, and several martial arts; maintaining several websites in an effort to help provide up-to-date and helpful information for other who share his interests in health of body and mind.