Grapefruit and Medicine Don't Mix?

Image from FDA Consumer Update

I found this article fascinating.  News from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) suggests that grapefruit and certain medications can be a harmful combination.  I love pink grapefruit juice, so this study caught my eye.

The acting director of the Office of Clinical Pharmacology, Shiew Mei Huang, remarked that both grapefruit juice and fresh grapefruit may interfere with the way specific types of prescription and over-the-counter drugs work. In the FDA consumer update, Ms. Huang stated that “the juice increases the absorption of the drug into the bloodstream...When there is a higher concentration of a drug, you tend to have more adverse events.”  The result may be that the juice allows too much of the medication to remain in the body, which in turn could lead to a higher risk of liver damage or even kidney failure.

The drugs listed that are most seriously impacted are:

• some statin drugs to lower cholesterol, such as Zocor (simvastatin), Lipitor (atorvastatin) & Pravachol (pravastatin)
• some blood pressure-lowering drugs, such as Nifediac & Afeditab (both nifedipine)
• some organ transplant rejection drugs, such as Sandimmune & Neoral (both cyclosporine)
• some anti-anxiety drugs, such as BuSpar (buspirone)
• some anti-arrhythmia drugs, such as Cordarone & Nexterone (both amiodarone)
• some antihistamines, such as Allegra (fexofenadine)

Discussing how grapefruit and its juice may impact one’s medicine seems like it would be a good thing to discuss with a health care provider prior to taking any new drug.