Hi Everyone
A Canadian study proves that drinking juices could dramatically decrease your body’s ability to absorb certain medications; including some taken for life-threatening conditions such as heart disease and cancer.
Having your morning glass of grapefruit or other
juice might be a great way to get your vitamin C.
But for those using certain medications, the common breakfast drink may also do
some serious harm.
Researchers at the University of Western Ontario in Canada learned that subjects who consumed a particular antihistamine with grapefruit juice absorbed just half the drug compar ed to those who consumed the pill with water.
The researchers said that other drugs that are absorbed in a similar way as the antihistamine could likely be affected in the same way. “Our concern is basically for a loss of effect for drugs, and particularly those that are used in serious medical conditions,” principal researcher Mr. Bailey announced Tuesday from Philadelphia, where he delivered the study’s findings at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society.
Bailey, a professor of clinical pharmacology, said an active ingredient in grapefruit juice seems to block a transporter protein that allows absorption of certain drugs from your small intestine into the bloodstream. Apple and orange juices contain similar ingredients.
The drugs include an anti-cancer agent, some beta blockers that could prevent a second heart attack and a medication to prevent rejection of transplanted organs, he stated. “These are 3 serious medical conditions for which the drugs simply have to work properly.”
In 1990, Bailey reported on the first known
food-drug interaction, when his team founded that grapefruit juice boosted the
potency of the high blood pressure drug felodipine which leads to toxic levels
of drug in the blood.
Ever since other researchers have discovered about fifty medications that are
subject to the so-called “grapefruit juice-effect” Some prescription drugs now
has warning labels against taking the juice or fresh grapefruit while taking
the medications to prevent overdose.
The new study shows that grapefruit, apple and orange juices (also the whole fruits) could have the opposite effect, by limiting absorption. Recently, the fruit juices have been shown to lower the absorption of the anti-cancer agent etoposide; the anti-rejection drug cyclosporine; the beta blockers atenolol, celiprolol and talinolol; and the antibiotics ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin and itraconazole.
“This is only the tip of the iceberg,” Bailey stated. “I am sure we will find more and more medications that are affected this way.” People should check with their doctor or pharmacist before taking any medication with grapefruit or other fruits and juices, he said.
But as a general rule, Bailey said to avoid consuming them for about 4 hours before and 4 hours after taking a pill. “The best thing to do in general to acquire the most consistent effect of your medication … is to consume it with a glass of water on an empty stomach.”
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