Grapefruit juice medication interactions

Some comments on the famous medication and grapefruit juice warning, with some comical confusion on the correct past tense of drink.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• grapefruit juice
• drug interactions

[jordanjcm]

So you could make your med more potent ? That could be a good thing. NO ? I mean if it can SAFLEY increase the potency of your med then you could take less of the med to get more of the desired effect? That sounds like a great way to lower your prescription costs. I am talking if it is safe and you could figure out how much it increases the med. I wonder if that is possible? 

[TheMedicineGuy]

@jordanjcm In theory, it would be possible. This same idea is applied with drug interaction with certain HIV medications, and some antibiotics with the medication probenecid. As far as I know, this concept has not been applied to grapefruit juice and medications. Intake of grapefruit juice would have to be consistent in amount and time of day, and even then there aren't any studies that tell us exactly how much and what the dose reductions would be for the meds...so it cannot be recommended.

[jbeneast]

Can you delve deeper into the BioChemistry of this Drug Interaction? Incorporate cytochrome P450 into the response. What are these specific enzymes that Grapefruit Juice is inhibiting or is it having an excitatory action or both within the body. I've heard that it can negate birth-control and enhance Viagra to the point of pain ensues. Please give as much details as you possibly can, I have a presentation on this subject Friday Sept. 30th...

[TheMedicineGuy]

@jbeneast Sorry, I cannot take the time to give a lot of detail on this...you'll benefit by doing the research, and my youtube site is not a valid reference for a scholastic paper...

But, I will say that CYP3A4 inhibition is the main player. Inhibition of the drug transporter P-glycoprotein may play a role as well. Not aware of an interaction w/ birth control (if anything, could cause an increase in estrogen). Enhanced Viagra is a possibility, although to what extent I don't know.

[TheMedicineGuy]

@jbeneast Sorry, I cannot take the time to give a lot of detail on this...you'll benefit by doing the research, and my youtube site is not a valid reference for a scholastic paper...

But, I will say that CYP3A4 inhibition is the main player. Inhibition of the drug transporter P-glycoprotein may play a role as well. Not aware of an interaction w/ birth control (if anything, could cause an increase in estrogen). Enhanced Viagra is a possibility, although to what extent I don't know.

[Doperno]

Awesome!  Thanks for answering that!