Many people enjoy a glass of grapefruit juice with breakfast – and why shouldn’t they – it’s healthy right?! The answer may surprise you.
Grapefruit contains a substance that blocks the liver’s capacity to metabolize certain drugs. This means that grapefruit essential stops the liver from doing its job of breaking down certain chemicals and medications. As a result, the blood levels of some drugs can get much higher than normal and drugs can stay in your system much longer if taken with or near grapefruit juice.
“No problem”, you say, “I don’t take my medications for several hours after I have my grapefruit juice.” Unfortunately, that doesn’t help. While most food-drug interactions can be avoided simply by taking the substances several hours apart, grapefruit may inhibit detoxification of many medications for up to 72 hours. So if you have a glass of grapefruit juice on Monday, your body’s ability to metabolize many drugs may still be compromised until Thursday!
Click here for a complete list of medications that are known to interact with grapefruit juice. If you take any of these medications, be sure and avoid grapefruit juice – there are plenty of other juices to choose from. Even if a medication you are taking isn’t on the list, it is probably best that you avoid grapefruit juice – the downside simply isn’t worth the risk.