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Lipitor and grapefruit

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Posted 7/24/2006 5:09 AM (GMT 0)
My hubby works for a produce company and brought me home some grapefruits last week. Something I remembered hearing about meds and grapefruit made me look them up online and what I found blew me away. It seems that grapefruit increases the absorption or potency of some meds and there is an actual case of a person who died by consuming fresh grapefruit juice three times a day while on Lipitor. Just a word to the wise... So many of us are on multiple meds, check with your phamacist about your meds and grapefruit or you can look them up online. Some of the helpful sites I found online were

Grapefruit juice and Medication can be a dangerous mix

The Mayo Clinic, Grapefruit juice and drug interactions
Posted 7/24/2006 5:16 AM (GMT 0)
I have known about the grapefruit and grapefruit juice for a long time. There are some other meds you shouldn't use grapefruit juice with.

I love grapefruit, but I just avoid it completely. Don't even drink the Fresca's anymore either as they have grapefruit juice in them.

Hugs,
Faye
Posted 7/24/2006 5:29 AM (GMT 0)
Good thing i don't like grapefruit!!! haha...sorry
Posted 7/24/2006 11:21 AM (GMT 0)
I actually experimented with grapefruit this past season, knowing about the "increase potency" effect.  The tree in our yard was overflowing with the fruit.  I'm on Glucophage (2 x 500mg) and Diovan (2 x 80mg).  I would pick about three, scoop out the pulp and eat it throughout the day.  It made not one iota of difference in my BS or BP readings.  I was hoping to be able to reduce my meds, but no such luck.  At least it didn't raise my figures.  And I like grapefruit.

Posted 7/24/2006 12:53 PM (GMT 0)
I work in the citrus industry. There have been studies about the "Grapefruit Drug Interaction".

I even think AARP had a study about it.

The citrus industry was more interested in the actual use of cutting back on the meds so you can get more for your money. I even attended a confrence that was put on buy the Florida citrus growers about finding ways to improve the uptake of certian drugs with grapefruit. This was real big a few years ago and then it seemed to not be so hot when the Hurricanes wiped out 40% of the grapefruit in Florida. Seems everyone was scrambling around to just get some grapefruit for making flavors. As the industry fights to recover we may see more on it.

I don't have any of the medical studies, but I am sure if you do a Google search, a lot of stuff good and bad will surface.

Bob
Posted 7/27/2006 5:50 PM (GMT 0)
My cholesterol persription (Crestor) comes with a big warning about grapefruit and both my Endo and PCP warned me about it.
Posted 7/28/2006 1:57 AM (GMT 0)
Jeannie143,  I take Lovastatin ( Mevacor ) and I drank grapefruit juice alot and never got any type of reaction/illness from it but at the time, (a while back) this was before I even knew this.    I really wonder about that since I never had any kind of ill effects from it at all.    Very strange!
Posted 7/29/2006 8:22 AM (GMT 0)
AZDesertRat,
How much Mevacor are you taking? Because if you are taking a low dose then perhaps if it went up some, that wouldn't be so bad for you. I'm on 80 mg. of Lipitor and that is the highest dose every tested on a human being. So it would be very dangerous for me to use grapefruit and I thiink I'll just cut out all citrus.

I added the WelChol recently and been on it for 3 nights now and no problems at all. I hope it lowers my terribly high cholesterol though. Last time it was 289. Can you imagine being on 80 mg. of Lipitor? It was 378 without any cholesterol meds at all.

Hugs,
Faye
Posted 7/29/2006 8:59 AM (GMT 0)
I've just learned that tangerines have been added to the list of fruits that increase a certain enzyme that makes meds work weirdly... Doesn't appear to be present in orange juice... I don't often drink orange juice, just eat small oranges. At my diabetes class the instructor squeezed a small orange and showed us how much juice was in it. It was about 1/3 of a cup. Then she asked us how many of us used to drink an 8 oz. glass of oj like on the commercials... Every hand went up!

Her lesson showed me that I can feel mentally satisfied with eating a small orange and feel 'deprived' by just drinking the juice. Plus there is all that great fiber! Sometimes the diabetic food plan is a bit of a mind game...
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