Grapefruit Juice Can Interfere with Certain Medications
Although it contains vitamin C and potassium, it can also affect how certain medicines work.
Drinking a little juice in the morning with breakfast, or during lunch, may seem like very good advice for the health. And that’s usually the case, except when these natural drinks are contraindicated when taking certain medications.
Although grapefruit juice, like that of other citrus fruits, contains vitamin C and potassium, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) notes that, just like the fruit alone, may affect the operation of certain medicines.
The FDA says the fruit can cause problems by interacting with cholesterol-lowering statin medication, those that treat high blood pressure, medicine to prevent rejection of transplanted organs, anti-anxiety medications, corticosteroids, medicines that treat abnormal heart rhythms, and antihistamines.
This is how grapefruit intervenes in the consumption of medicines
The FDA notes that when there is an interaction of grapefruit juice with medications, this allows more medicine to enter the blood, so the side effects they cause could be more severe. Recently, it has also been discovered that, having the opposite effect, the fruit could cause the medication to decrease in effectiveness.
They detail that grapefruit juice can affect proteins in the body that help carry medicine to our cells for absorption, so it can more or less enter the bloodstream.
The agency explains that grapefruit does not affect all medications in the aforementioned categories, and highlights that the severity of the interaction depends on the person; in any case, the advice is to always consult your doctor to review what is prescribed and determine whether they can be consumed together or not.
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