Q: Why shouldn’t you eat or drink certain citrus fruits while taking certain medications?
A: Grapefruits, Sevilleoranges, Tangelos, and the juices made from them have many health benefits, but they can also interfere with some prescription and non-prescription medications.
The interference is generally called drug-food interaction. Specifically, the fruits and juices speed up the rate of absorption in the body. With a faster rate of absorption, the drug enters the bloodstream more quickly. Abnormally high drug levels can have negative side effects on the body and negatively impact the performance of the drug.
It is believed that a natural chemical found in the fruit blocks the enzyme in the body that regulates the drug absorption rate.
The drugs impacted most are the prescription drugs used to lower cholesterol, known as Statins. However, not all Statins are impacted the same. Statins that are taken orally, such as Lipitor, are impacted the most because the drug-food interaction occurs in the digestive tract.
Negative side effects of the drug-food interaction may include the following:
- muscle breakdown
- liver damage
- digestive problems
Drug-food interactions are well known and patients should be provided guidance with the applicable prescriptions.
The following website was used in answering the question:
http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm292276.htm