Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Why You Should Avoid Mixing Grapefruit Juice With Meds



According to The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth: The Surprising Unbiased Truth about What You Should Eat and Why it may not be wise to drink grapefruit juice while on medication. According to the book,

"It causes the medicine to stay in the bloodstream longer, which in some cases can boost the amount in your system to a dangerous high. Drugs that are affected include allergy medication (like Allegra), congestive heart failure medication (like Digoxin), blood pressure medicines and/or calcium channel blockers (like Cozaar, Plendil, Procardia, and Sular), epilepsy drugs (like Carbatrol and Tegretol), and cholesterol-lowering drugs (like Mevacor, Zocar, and Lipitor), but there are probably tons more, so if your med isn't on that list, don't take a chance. If you're curious as to why this happens, three compounds in grapefruit belonging to a class called furocoumarins inhibit a key enzyme, CYP3A4, that metabolizes and regulates certain drugs."

Hope you found this information helpful!