A couple of months ago as I was sitting the ER with my husband who was having chest pains, one of the nurses that came into our little room was, of course, asking all kinds of medical questions as well as a few personal questions that I thought were just a little too personal and none of her friggin business and told her so.  But, anyway, one of the questions she asked us was did my husband drink grapefruit juice.  I answered that he did drink grapefruit juice but not on any regular basis.  She said that he shouldn't drink anymore, wrote it down on his chart and out the door she went before we could ask any questions.  We asked the doctor about this strange little incident and was told only that grapefruit juice isn't good for everyone. 

Well now, you can believe me this got me to wondering about what was wrong with drinking grapefruit juice.  So, I've done a little research and found out some very interesting things about grapefruit juice.  My main sources of information were consumer-health.com and mayoclinic.com. 

The main health issue with grapefruit juice is that it has been found to cause negative interactions with some drugs.  Now, who would have thought that, huh? 

Now, they don't know yet what exactly is in grapefruit juice that can react negatively with certain medications but some researchers seem to think that it is a compound in grapefruit juice that interferes with the body's ability to break down certain enzymes, so that these medications build up in your body which can lead to some very nasty side effects. 

One of the enzymes that grapefruit juice interferes with is called, CYP3A4.  It appears that if you have a higher quantity of this enzyme in your body, it is more likely that grapefruit juice will cause bad side effects with certain drugs. 

The compounds that are in the grapefruit juice that cause these problems is thought to be narningenin or DHB, but, not all fruit juice contains these compounds.

It is also thought that the different ways grapfruit juice is processed could have something to do with the drug reactions.  Also, there are different amounts of these compounds in the individual parts of the grapefruit.  It is also not known yet if just eating a grapefruit will cause the same problems.  It does not take a very large amount of grapefruit juice to cause side effects, one 8 oz. glass will cause a similar response as if drinking two or three glasses.

It is recommended that when you are given a new precription by your doctor, that you should ask your doctor or your pharmacist if it could have a negative reaction with grapefruit juice.  So, if you are drinking grapefruit juice, you should probably stop until you can check out your prescriptions and if you don't already drink grapefruit juice, don't start.

Listed below is a partial list of the medications that can have bad side effects with grapefruit juice in some people.

atorvastatin(Lipitor)

buspirone(Buspar)

carbamazepine(Tegretol)

cerivastatin(Baycol)

cyclosporine(Sandimmune)

diazepam(Valium)

erythromycin(E-Mycin, Ery-Tab, E-base, E.E.S., Ery-Ped)

sertraline(Zoloft)

sildenafil(Viagra)

So, you should always be careful when taking any new medication and ask about possible interactions with current drugs you are taking and now there is a new threat we have to be careful about, grapefruit juice. 

Who knew that grapefruit juice could be considered a heatlh hazard.  Certainly not me and probably not most people. 

So be safe and stay away from the grapefruit juice!!!