How fruit juices interact with medications;

This is a relatively new phenomenon that was discovered for newer medications and in some cases it has terrible results. Documentation however is as old as 20 years ago, however and as new drugs are being developed there is new evidence all the time that fruit juices interact with medications. Drugs are broken down in the liver by enzymes and grapefruit juice in particuliar uses the same pathway in the liver to break down certain medications. This can be further explained as a pathway that is being utilized by another drug and something else cannot occupy the same space. Like not enough room in a sense.

David Bailey, a pharmacologist, was the first researcher to identify grapefruit juice's potential to increase the absorption of some drugs 20 years ago and making some of the doses toxic.

Drug levels that are brought up by grapefruit juice can or do block an enzyme CYP3A4 which is an enzyme that breaks down drugs. This in a sense is how drugs interact with each other, using the same pathway. This can bring up and reduce clearence of drugs and one of the most important drugs that interacts with grapefruit juice is Methadone. Mixing Methadone with grapefruit juice can have fatal results, for the half life of methadone is so long (up to 36 hours) and considerably less in some individuals so that drinking grapefruit juice with methadone gives unpredicatable results. It makes the drug work faster by releasing more into the system and impedes the normal mechanism of the drug.

Rresearch shows grapefruit/apple juice can decrease the effectiveness of certain drugs. These drugs have a variety of purposes from heart disease to fighting cancer and it reduces the effectivness of some drugs.

Here are some drugs that are vulnerable to grapefruit juice and juices.......

Beta blockers (atenolol, celiprolol, talinolol); high blood pressure medication and prevent heart attacks; and certain antibiotics (ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin, itraconazole) etoposide, viagra and I personally think all opiates are affected by this and of course again methadone. Valium is also vulnerable and on this premise I would also think that other longer acting benzodiazepienes can be affected by grapefruit juice. A lot of people were under the asumption for many years it was the vitamin C .It is also my opinion also that the actual fillers used also dictate how grapefruit juice is absorbed or affected by enzyme pathways. Fillers in drugs make a big difference with absorption, how quickly the active ingredient hits you and I think they also play a part in this also. This is my hypothesis.

Tests have been conducted that a antihistamine was given to individuals and than drank grapefruit juice. The result was only half of the drug was absorbed into their systems that should have been.

Being that it is not known what all drugs are affected by fruit juices as apple juice or grapefruit juice the best thing to do is simply take your medications with water. And I want to add this. I am a methadone advocate and it has been suggested by word of mouth from people I knew that went to clinics and in pain managment, that methadone will work a lot faster if taken with grapefruit juice. I would not advise this for you never know what clearance results are going to be attained.

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