Grapefruit

[Sofie]

I'm asking this just out of curiosity since my daily diet doesn't include much grapefruit.
The medical information for Budesonide (which I take twice a day) says, that grapefruit-juice should be avoided. I remember having seen this advice before with other medications. On one webpage it says:
**... medications that block the liver enzymes that break down budesonide may lead to higher blood concentrations and more side effects ..... Grapefruit juice has the same effect.....**
It doesn't say what happens if I do it anyway :gulp:

Sof

[Dana Gold]

Grapefruit has chemical constituents in it that are Cytochrome P450 inhibitors, any drug or food that interacts with it in the liver metabolic process will have slowed down clearance , and consequent sustained elevated levels of the same drug....leading to increased side effect profile....in some cases health and life threatening. Note:grapefruit juice has concentrated, higher levels of these constituents: 12 oz of juice might come from many grapefruits!


http://www.holisticonline.com/Herbal-med/_Herbs/grapefruit-interactions-what-is-present-in-grapefruit.htm


http://www.intense-training.com/archive/t-2610.html

More (technical) information on CYP enzyme inhibitors, inducers, and substrates are included in this link.....go to No 3. and click on any (alphabetically listed) food or drug and it will show interaction profile.

http://www.anaesthetist.com/physiol/basics/metabol/cyp/cyp.htm

Dana :pizza:

[Sofie]

Hi Dana, nice to see you back.
Thanks for the links.
Interresting, that also other foods interact with cytochrome P450: broccoli, cabbage, other cruciferous vegetables, spinach ....
Actually, I already knew that when I was a kid :wink:

Sof

[Dana Gold]

Tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana smoke, as well as some herbal supplements also may inhibit or induce metabolism of certain medicines. St. John's Wort, as an example, may interfere with some anti-viral drugs.

:pizza:

[Dana Gold]

since my daily diet doesn't include much grapefruit.

My mother used to virtually "force-feed" (force-drink?) me a glass of grapefruit juice for breakfast during my junior high school years.. she wouldn't let me leave home without it....ever since then , I've hated the stuff for its nasty, bitter taste :sick:

:pizza:

[Jolinn]

hahaha Dana, mine was oatmeal for breakfast everyday. I do like pink grapefruit tho (s)

[Dana Gold]

Hi Jolinn,

Oatmeal is yummy...I had Malto-Meal (with cinnamon and butter) them-days....oh! and :sign16: to BLO!

Dana

[Betsy]

I do like pink grapefruit tho (s)

You seen the price of grapefruit lately? :angry_smi

Reading this reminded me of an incident about a year ago. it wasn't funny at the time but with the one year anniversary of my mom's death coming up on Monday, figure it's a good time to share it.

Not long before she died, I was down in Florida where she lived for awhile. She was totally bedridden by then and all of us, including her knew it was the last weeks of her life. Well, my mother loved grapefruit. Juice, fruit, whatever. Trying to be a good daughter, (and not thinking either) I went off in search of the best grapefruit juice I could find and being Florida, got lots of fresh-squeezed juice for her. When I got back home, the visiting nurse was there and what a fiasco it became. Turns out, all the drugs my mom was on would have reacted pretty horribly with that juice. I knew that, but in my grief simply didn't remember.

On a lighter note...I'm not much of a breakfast eater but given the choice (and someone to cook it for me), I'll take two eggs over easy on a kaiser roll.

Betsy