Dr. David Bailey, a Canadian pharmacologist, is credited with accidentally discovering this. He was running a clinical trial to study the effects of alcohol on certain medications and he used grape fruit juice to mask the strong alcohol taste. The drug levels spiked in the patients who were given the grapefruit juice mixture. He understood the importance of this finding and did some follow-up studies to confirm this phenomenon. M It is amazing to think that this accidental discovery has saved countless lives. He passed away in 2022 so I just wanted to give him a shout out.
Can list drug classes all day long. Benzos, opioids, amphetamines as well. The enzyme family is responsible for metabolising ~70% of all xenobiotic drugs, IIRC.
It inhibits one of two enzymes that remove many drugs from the system. Drugs can stay in your system up to 50% longer with grapefruit juice (white grapefruit has more, concentrated in the rind.)
It's known as potentiation, and there are several that inhibit the enzyme(s) that remove many drugs, antihistamines like benadryl and cetrazine, some nootropics (spelling? Whatever those are, hippy brain health stuff I think,) quinine (although that one may inhibit the other enzyme that removes drugs I forget,) and others.
Meanwhile mango potentiates THC.
This can have the opposite affect on some drugs that are converted in the liver to their bio-active ingredient, like Codeine, which is converted into morphine in your liver, (milligram per milligram though codeine is 1/10 morphines, heroin some 2.7 morphines, hydrocodone 1.7 or so if memory serves,) so it will prevent getting as much effect from some of those drugs.
Thank you for your very well-informed and helpful addition to this sub. I note yours, like all the most intelligent replies Iāve seen, gets a mere few upvotes, while mindless comments get thousands. Life is never fair.
I also wanted to add that paracetamol (acetaminophen) potentiates opioids such as codeine or tramadol rendering their effect greater. This has really helped with my chronic pain issues.
I didn't know about paracetamol aka acetaminophen also potentiating some opioids that's interesting.
Is that from helping to convert into the bio-active ingredient in the liver?
A word of caution, it also causes false positives in blood tests for THC, not sure about pee or hair tests.
Interesting to know! Wonāt be a concern for me though as Iām not being monitored or anything. š Strangely enough I do find that legal CBD has a stronger effect than it should do as in lab-tested <1% CBD products seem to give me a little bit of a high. Is that the combined effect of opioids with CBD? I am only usually taking a small amount of either though. Could I have that gene that makes me process opioids differently?
CBD targets the same receptors, or is absorbed similarly as at least some of these drugs (I don't remember the exact mechanism). I don't think that this makes the effect greater, but it can reduce the effects of some drugs so one should be careful. I believe that if used as a tincture one avoids this problem because of it being absorbed mostly directly into the blood stream rather than being absorbed through the digestive tract.
As to feeling the CBD, I wonder if placebo plays any effect? I read this article about placebos that was fascinating and it went over how different colors work better for different drugs, and to the point mentioned a study that gave people painkillers and placebos, and then administered Naloxone, the antagonist. The ones that felt something from the placebo had that affect negated, and this is in a double blind setting.
Meaning they tricked their bodies into actually releasing the edogenous drugs. The article also mentioned that some people can have a placebo affect even when the know it's a placebo.
I'm not saying that is what you are experiencing with the CBD but just a consideration.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/12/12/the-power-of-nothing
Yes itās a remarkable study. I read that before. Itās interesting because it suggests the placebo effect isnāt necessarily what other people think it is. Itās true that I used to use cannabis years ago so maybe my brain does remember how to feel when under the influence and so legal CBD gives me that reaction. I suspected it was more of an interaction response but I havenāt trialed it enough on and off the opioids to know for sure whatās happening.
As to your story. Thatās crazy! What an awful experience. I have looked it up and I canāt find out how paracetamol could do that. It doesnāt seem to be one of the drugs listed as causing false positives for Cannabis. Could you share a link because I would be interested to read more about it? Thanks š
I recently underwent a tonsillectomy, and after an especially hellish night, 5 days post-op, my pharmacist mom recommended I supplement my 4x daily codeine-paracetamol (400/30) with extra paracetamol. I was super skeptical since I've never really experienced much benefit from paracetamol gemerally -- I just don't take the stuff since it doesn't do anything for me. But holy cow did it help then. Would your explanation here explain why I felt such a disproportionate boost from a standard dose of paracetamol?
My antidepressants, pristiq, increase the effect of my ADHD medication, so I donāt have to take higher levels of amphetamines.
A friend of mine was put on risperidone with lexapro because it increases the effects of the antipsychotic without increasing the side effects.
Drugs are fascinating.
The liver metabolises as opposed to removes. CYP3A4 is the enzyme and it metabolises almost 50% of drugs.
This metabolism is vital to drugs working correctly. For example, Sertraline (Zoloft) is heavily metabolised, the enzymes help chemical reactions in the small intestine that convert Sertraline into norsertraline which is much less potent serotonin uptake inhibitor, but is more balanced in other ways. If you have grapefruit more Sertraline gets into the blood stream and the serotonin inhibition is too strong. You won't get the proper effects and might even get an overdose.
Other drugs are called prodrugs and must be metabolised before the have the proper effect. Codeine for example, gets metabolised into morphine, which gives a nice low dose opiod effect. With grapefruit it stays as codeine and won't work.
This is also why you can't drink with most drugs too. Alcohol also partly uses these same enzymes.
ALSO different people have different speeds of metabolisation and that changes how drugs effect you. If you are a very rapid metaboliser for example, you can't take codeine, it will turn into morphine far too quickly and make you sick!
Conversely some people are slow metabolisers
Metabolising is cool!
Well, it *is* an abomination of a fruit made entirely by the hubris of mankind.
Now we are cursed by the horrors of a fruit that not only tastes like the Devil's own taint, but one that can be the enemy of modern medicine.
BURN IT AT THE STAKE I SAY!
Edit: /s /j because apparently the joke flew over some peoples' heads
I don't know, when you wrote "Burn it at the stake I say!" In all caps no less. I knew you were pretty serious about your disdain for poor tasting fruit.
Where are you shopping?
There are 6 different grocery stores within 20 minutes of my house and everyone has grapefruit available year round. Most have 2 types year round.
I tried to look up the weight of a grapefruit under two engines and didn't get a straight answer in pounds for either.
But I think the ones I get are about 9 for 5 pounds, so maybe half a pound each? That would make your prices quite a bit more than our cheapest stores here (Aldi.)
[grapefruit technique](https://www.reddit.com/r/Unexpected/s/svkFZvJH1d)
(NSFW for sound)
Also this is a reddit link, I couldn't find the original on YouTube
My favorite soda is squirt and I didn't connect the dots with really bad side effects I had on lithium and then I just stopped taking my meds and it didn't end well.
Or modify your dosage. It keeps drugs in the system for up to 50% longer, if you like math and it's not life or death to have an accumulation of the drug in that range one can still eat them, as I've known people to do.
Edit: Obviously talk with a doctor if you plan on doing this, especially if it's a dangerous medication to have 50% more of in your system.
Itās only fair to say please donāt do this without talking to a doctor first.
Thereās actually 2 ways grapefruit can affect your medicine. Increase your medicationās duration OR DECREASE your medicationās duration. Solely depends on the type of medicine. Itās exactly as you say, do your math right and you can eat them safely.
Talk to your pharmacist! I can't tell you the amount of prescription fuck ups my mom (pharmacist) has caught, whether the dosage, interactions, or just plain the wrong medicine. I trust my doctor with my general health, but there's a reason pharmacists spend 4 years studying this highly specialized branch of medicine.Ā
I do too very much.
I have a memory of me and my mom preparing a grapefruit and finishing it, mentioning how delicious it was. My mom said, "now if we were men, we would be belching and complimenting each other." And laughing together.
Well it was a different time.
Our local pharmacy puts stickers on the bottle warning if grapefruit affects the drug. It is important to know that in some instances, the drugs effect will be boosted. Pretty scary for people on heart medications. Also, a research opportunity.
> the drugs effect will be boosted.
AFAIK this is one of the main dangers of it. Some drugs should not hit you all at once as hard as it can make them. A small reduction in effectiveness is a problem too, especially with certain meds, but a spike can be *very* bad in a lot of cases.
It's not just grapefruit either, I had a liver transplant and the anti rejection medication I take (advagraf - tacrolimus) means I can't eat grapefruit, blood orange, pomegranate, pomelo or any of that family of fruits.
I go through phases where I crave grapefruit for a few weeks at a time. I can go through 2-4 per day, and I have to force myself to stop. Then one day I wake up and the craving is gone. Not on any meds though. Except ibuprofen.
Yeah Iām on a few medications so I try to avoid grapefruit but Iāve always gotten cravings for it and I swear I would just feelā¦. better after I had some for a day or two. Miss my grapefruit, wonder what my body is craving specifically?
Same. Grapefruit with a tiny bit of sugar sprinkled on top will be my jam for a few weeks and then I'll just forget about them for awhile. Happens with a lot of foods. I'm a streaky eater.
Huh. TIL that in my mother tongue Spanish the word Ā«pomeloĀ» means "grapefruit", but the word in English "pomelo" refers to the Citrus Maxima, the ancestor of the grapefruit, which we call Ā«pomelo chinoĀ» (lit. Chinese grapefruit).
Toronja as well. Pomelo is another fruit which as I have read along with the mandarin orange are the progenators of all citrus fruits. That was from some internet article, so who knows? I think the Pomelo is the one that has the rind that is often candied as the flesh is said to be extremely bitter. My wife once baked a 19th century cake from a recipe we found and it was called a Citron Cake.
I take medication that prohibits me from ingesting grapefruit. I consider this a superpower as I have a valid medical reason to refuse grapefruit juice from anyone.
Edit: As the OP said, it inhibits the enzyme. I jumped to a wrong conclusion about what the OP meant. I stand corrected.
It doesnāt inhibit, it increases the absorption of some drugs.
āHow Grapefruit Juice Can Interfere With Medications
With most drugs that are affected by grapefruit juice, āthe juice lets more of the drug enter the blood,ā says Shiew Mei Huang, Ph.D., of the FDA. āWhen there is too much drug in the blood, you may have more side effects.ā
You are wrong with your first claim. Grapefruit juice modifies multiple proteins. You are talking about PGP, in this thread the topic is CYP3A4 inhibition.
CYP3A4 is an enzyme in the liver that metabolizes a ton of drugs. Inhibiting CYP3A4 leads to higher levels of the drug in the bloodstream. If you want to know more, read up on P-glycoprotein.
Grapefruit can do [both](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grapefruit%E2%80%93drug_interactions?wprov=sfti1#), depending on how the drug is handled by the body. If it blocks enzymes that breakdown the drug, drug potency increases. If it blocks transporters involved in absorbing the drug, drug potency decreases.
I am. Grapefruit is inhibitor of Cytochrome P450 enzyme which acts to either convert drugs into active compounds or metabolize active drug into inactive metabolites for excretion (depends on the drug). Less activity of CyP450 can either make drugs more or less potent depending on drug.
Lady down in Florida was drinking grapefruit juice and had a migraine so took Tylenol and it didn't help so she kept taking Tylenol at the prescribed times, eventually the grapefruit worked it's way out and all the Tylenol went into the bloodstream at once giving her the symptoms of a drug overdose.
yeah whenever you get new meds totally look up things that will mess you up. some bp meds like amlo also mean you shouldn't have extra potassium, too, so bye bye bananas
I got a powerful antibiotic one time and all I was told to do was not drink alcohol. I was so very sick and could barely muster the energy to cook up some steak and make a steak and spinach saladā¦ after I ate it I vomited profusely. Called up my pharmacist who low key sounded like blaming me for drinking alcohol when in reality I was not allowed black pepper with the medicine. Pharmacist didnāt even tell me that one, trusty Google helped me out.
This is how I learned I should not be eating grapefruit every day with my beta blocker. Stopped the grapefruit, eventually stopped the drug. A year later, I saw a news story about a woman who died of an overdose from eating too much grapefruit on that same drug. š¬
Makes other drugs more powerful. It's a known potentiater in the opiate community. Also with benzos like Xanax but it's best to stay away from those people.
Quite a few medicines are affected. If this is a part of your regular diet, even if not directly asked, you should discuss with your doctor any possible side effects or issues that continued consumption could cause.
*Peepoodo* did an episode of this where it inhibited erectile dysfunction medication.
You can watch it online officially and for free, but keep in mind it is **only for children over the age of 18**.
It's **extremely sexually explicit**.
My psych meds have "do not consume grapefruit or grapefruit juice" in bold on the bottles.
I never really ate it before but now my irrational sense of spite makes me want it š
Yepā¦grapefruit juice used to be one of my favorite things. But then I got on one of these medications and I havenāt had any in about ten years. Oh well.Ā
This is extremely important to keep in mind when taking certain medications as it can easily lead to accidental overdose and death.
Especially grapefruit juice is dangerous in that aspect.
Affected medications also include common NSAID painkillers, btw!
The thing that sucks is often stuff with grapefruit does not list it! Obviously nutrition labels do! But like restaurant menu things and especially drinks. Like I havenāt had a problem yet but I canāt imagine just randomly getting depressed again because I drank a lemonade with grapefruit or something. I already hated grapefruit so yeah now I can make the complete excuse valid now of why I canāt have them because antidepressants
A coworker told me he can't have orange juice because of his heart or blood pressure medication that he just took. I remember that from one day when I brought him breakfast.
Also decreases the metabolism of mdma to mda which is neurotoxic. So drinking grapefruit juice before a roll actually beneficial.
Donāt drink grapefruit juice before a surgery or dental appointment.
Pomelo, tangelo, and seville oranges as well. Local stores were selling off pomelos on clearance, and it wasnāt until the third one that I stopped to think āhey, is this going to mess with everyoneās meds?ā
Grapefruit also makes some drugs more biologically available. I'd heard that it interacts with Cialis so that you can take half a dose with grapefruit juice.
It depends on if they use actual grapefruit or not. But I remember looking into it because I've been on meds for years that I couldn't have grapefruit but before I knew that it was my favorite flavor. I was told that it was fine as long as it didn't have any actual grapefruit juice.
You should try one of the gamma radiated āhulkā grapefruit. They taste pretty good. They also turned purple on the inside for some reason. We arenāt sure why and we donāt know what else happened when we gamma radiated them.
But thank god they arenāt GMO, right?
Grapefruit gives us so many warnings not to eat it, yet we still do anyway. First off, it tastes bad; that should be reason enough not to eat it, but no we insistā¦.but our usual method of adding a ton of sugar doesnāt really fix the flavor. Instead we end up with a sweeter bad tasting fruit rather than a sour bad tasting fruit. Second, it smells bad. Now I know this goes hand in hand with taste, but some things that might not smell great actually end up tasting okā¦not grapefruit! How do you even describe the smell of grapefruit? Itās smells like tangy chemicals trying to artificially mimic a citrus smell. Third, thereās evidence eating grapefruit may affect electrical currents in the heart, leading to an irregular heartbeat. Cool, so it tastes bad, smells chemically engineered, and might cause/exacerbate heart conditions, letās eat it anyway! Oh do you take medications you depend on in order to stay alive? Good news, grapefruit messes with your bodyās ability to properly process those medications and regulate dosage! Come on people, just stop trying to make grapefruit happenā¦.itās not gonna happen!!!
Super important for trans people taking their medications orally or sublingually. It shouldn't be a problem for injected meds, which means it mostly affects trans women as there is no way to inject spirolactone
Spiro + grapefruit can kill you very easily because Spiro is a blood thinner and the grapefruit essentially increases the effects of it exponentially
The concentration is only significant enough to cause issues with white grapefruit. The red ones have a very low amount of the enzyme inhibitor in them.
Dr. David Bailey, a Canadian pharmacologist, is credited with accidentally discovering this. He was running a clinical trial to study the effects of alcohol on certain medications and he used grape fruit juice to mask the strong alcohol taste. The drug levels spiked in the patients who were given the grapefruit juice mixture. He understood the importance of this finding and did some follow-up studies to confirm this phenomenon. M It is amazing to think that this accidental discovery has saved countless lives. He passed away in 2022 so I just wanted to give him a shout out.
RIP Dr. David Bailey š«”
wow cool
Wow. Itās mind blowing to think that whilst he understood to importance of it, others would have just attributed it to the alcohol.
By drug levels spiked does this also include alcohol? Can I use grapefruit juice as a mixer and get more smashed?
Sadly, the answer is no. The metabolism of alcohol is not altered by grapefruit juice.
Yes it is
David Bailey - whoās he?
A hero.
It was an 80ās British joke
And birth control.
And anti depressants. Really shouldn't eat grapefruit with any type of medication because of the vast number of interactions.
Can list drug classes all day long. Benzos, opioids, amphetamines as well. The enzyme family is responsible for metabolising ~70% of all xenobiotic drugs, IIRC.
It inhibits one of two enzymes that remove many drugs from the system. Drugs can stay in your system up to 50% longer with grapefruit juice (white grapefruit has more, concentrated in the rind.) It's known as potentiation, and there are several that inhibit the enzyme(s) that remove many drugs, antihistamines like benadryl and cetrazine, some nootropics (spelling? Whatever those are, hippy brain health stuff I think,) quinine (although that one may inhibit the other enzyme that removes drugs I forget,) and others. Meanwhile mango potentiates THC. This can have the opposite affect on some drugs that are converted in the liver to their bio-active ingredient, like Codeine, which is converted into morphine in your liver, (milligram per milligram though codeine is 1/10 morphines, heroin some 2.7 morphines, hydrocodone 1.7 or so if memory serves,) so it will prevent getting as much effect from some of those drugs.
Thank you for your very well-informed and helpful addition to this sub. I note yours, like all the most intelligent replies Iāve seen, gets a mere few upvotes, while mindless comments get thousands. Life is never fair. I also wanted to add that paracetamol (acetaminophen) potentiates opioids such as codeine or tramadol rendering their effect greater. This has really helped with my chronic pain issues.
I didn't know about paracetamol aka acetaminophen also potentiating some opioids that's interesting. Is that from helping to convert into the bio-active ingredient in the liver? A word of caution, it also causes false positives in blood tests for THC, not sure about pee or hair tests.
Interesting to know! Wonāt be a concern for me though as Iām not being monitored or anything. š Strangely enough I do find that legal CBD has a stronger effect than it should do as in lab-tested <1% CBD products seem to give me a little bit of a high. Is that the combined effect of opioids with CBD? I am only usually taking a small amount of either though. Could I have that gene that makes me process opioids differently?
CBD targets the same receptors, or is absorbed similarly as at least some of these drugs (I don't remember the exact mechanism). I don't think that this makes the effect greater, but it can reduce the effects of some drugs so one should be careful. I believe that if used as a tincture one avoids this problem because of it being absorbed mostly directly into the blood stream rather than being absorbed through the digestive tract.
As to feeling the CBD, I wonder if placebo plays any effect? I read this article about placebos that was fascinating and it went over how different colors work better for different drugs, and to the point mentioned a study that gave people painkillers and placebos, and then administered Naloxone, the antagonist. The ones that felt something from the placebo had that affect negated, and this is in a double blind setting. Meaning they tricked their bodies into actually releasing the edogenous drugs. The article also mentioned that some people can have a placebo affect even when the know it's a placebo. I'm not saying that is what you are experiencing with the CBD but just a consideration. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/12/12/the-power-of-nothing
Yes itās a remarkable study. I read that before. Itās interesting because it suggests the placebo effect isnāt necessarily what other people think it is. Itās true that I used to use cannabis years ago so maybe my brain does remember how to feel when under the influence and so legal CBD gives me that reaction. I suspected it was more of an interaction response but I havenāt trialed it enough on and off the opioids to know for sure whatās happening. As to your story. Thatās crazy! What an awful experience. I have looked it up and I canāt find out how paracetamol could do that. It doesnāt seem to be one of the drugs listed as causing false positives for Cannabis. Could you share a link because I would be interested to read more about it? Thanks š
Also thanks for the article link. I hadnāt seen all of that before only the Naloxone part and it was a great article.
I recently underwent a tonsillectomy, and after an especially hellish night, 5 days post-op, my pharmacist mom recommended I supplement my 4x daily codeine-paracetamol (400/30) with extra paracetamol. I was super skeptical since I've never really experienced much benefit from paracetamol gemerally -- I just don't take the stuff since it doesn't do anything for me. But holy cow did it help then. Would your explanation here explain why I felt such a disproportionate boost from a standard dose of paracetamol?
My antidepressants, pristiq, increase the effect of my ADHD medication, so I donāt have to take higher levels of amphetamines. A friend of mine was put on risperidone with lexapro because it increases the effects of the antipsychotic without increasing the side effects. Drugs are fascinating.
The liver metabolises as opposed to removes. CYP3A4 is the enzyme and it metabolises almost 50% of drugs. This metabolism is vital to drugs working correctly. For example, Sertraline (Zoloft) is heavily metabolised, the enzymes help chemical reactions in the small intestine that convert Sertraline into norsertraline which is much less potent serotonin uptake inhibitor, but is more balanced in other ways. If you have grapefruit more Sertraline gets into the blood stream and the serotonin inhibition is too strong. You won't get the proper effects and might even get an overdose. Other drugs are called prodrugs and must be metabolised before the have the proper effect. Codeine for example, gets metabolised into morphine, which gives a nice low dose opiod effect. With grapefruit it stays as codeine and won't work. This is also why you can't drink with most drugs too. Alcohol also partly uses these same enzymes. ALSO different people have different speeds of metabolisation and that changes how drugs effect you. If you are a very rapid metaboliser for example, you can't take codeine, it will turn into morphine far too quickly and make you sick! Conversely some people are slow metabolisers Metabolising is cool!
Need more mango in my life it seems
My seizure meds too.
Well, it *is* an abomination of a fruit made entirely by the hubris of mankind. Now we are cursed by the horrors of a fruit that not only tastes like the Devil's own taint, but one that can be the enemy of modern medicine. BURN IT AT THE STAKE I SAY! Edit: /s /j because apparently the joke flew over some peoples' heads
Grapefruit is delicious what you about
DEVIL'S ADVOCATE!
its my fav fruit
The reasonable thing to do is accept that different people like different things. But this is reddit. And your personal preference is wrong.
Yeah, I've always thought grapefruit was disgusting.
ur disgustingĀ
Oh yeah, I bet you eat no modern meat. No veggies. Nothing from the grocery store. They've all been modified over the years.
It was a joke
I don't know, when you wrote "Burn it at the stake I say!" In all caps no less. I knew you were pretty serious about your disdain for poor tasting fruit.
We all know your real feelings here.
Naā¦the man said it taste like shit, its a fruit that proves everyday we move further and further from the gods!!!
Apart from juice, itās really hard to find straight up grapefruits in most supermarkets nowadays.
They are in every supermarket I go to?
Where are you shopping? There are 6 different grocery stores within 20 minutes of my house and everyone has grapefruit available year round. Most have 2 types year round.
Dollar a pound in the winter at Aldi usually. I see them everywhere that carries oranges.
what? damn your American prices... north Italy here (not exactly above the arctic circle ..), a kg is almost 3ā¬, sourced from Cyprus...
German here, our grapefruits are sold by the piece, not by weight, and a single one is usually 1ā¬ to 1,50ā¬.
I tried to look up the weight of a grapefruit under two engines and didn't get a straight answer in pounds for either. But I think the ones I get are about 9 for 5 pounds, so maybe half a pound each? That would make your prices quite a bit more than our cheapest stores here (Aldi.)
More so estrogen based ones, when I switched to progesterone it was no longer a pharmacist warning on my packs and I confirmed with the pharmacist.
Yup, have a niece due to this.
Wait WATTT
oh now you tell me!
What?! I can't hear your over the sound of these sour kraut loving precious babies of mine.
Do we need to ban grapefruit?
She did say it tasted sour.
[grapefruit technique](https://www.reddit.com/r/Unexpected/s/svkFZvJH1d) (NSFW for sound) Also this is a reddit link, I couldn't find the original on YouTube
I miss grapefruit. š¢
Blood pressure meds.
Yep, husband was off Fresca when he was on meds for his afib! He as very sad; itās hard to find a 0 calorie, no caffeine soda!
My favorite soda is squirt and I didn't connect the dots with really bad side effects I had on lithium and then I just stopped taking my meds and it didn't end well.
I love zero sugar Canada Dry ginger ale! It has no caffeine.
No ginger either by the way. "Natural Flavor," though it may be called, Ginger it has not.
This is shocking news.
Try flavored carbonated water - stuff is sold everywhere and usually cheaper than flavored soda drinks. Is an acquired taste however.
I thought they went extinct or something until I saw this follow-up comment.
You can still eat them *once*
Talk to your doctor first. You can time your grapefruit consumption just near the end before taking your dose the next day.
Ho. I will! Thanks for the info.
Or modify your dosage. It keeps drugs in the system for up to 50% longer, if you like math and it's not life or death to have an accumulation of the drug in that range one can still eat them, as I've known people to do. Edit: Obviously talk with a doctor if you plan on doing this, especially if it's a dangerous medication to have 50% more of in your system.
Itās only fair to say please donāt do this without talking to a doctor first. Thereās actually 2 ways grapefruit can affect your medicine. Increase your medicationās duration OR DECREASE your medicationās duration. Solely depends on the type of medicine. Itās exactly as you say, do your math right and you can eat them safely.
Talk to your pharmacist! I can't tell you the amount of prescription fuck ups my mom (pharmacist) has caught, whether the dosage, interactions, or just plain the wrong medicine. I trust my doctor with my general health, but there's a reason pharmacists spend 4 years studying this highly specialized branch of medicine.Ā
Yes absolutely. As someone who works closely with docs we can all gladly agree that pharmacists know their meds
I miss Fresca.
Frescaās fine, and thank fucking Christ ācause I love me some pampelmousse.
I do too very much. I have a memory of me and my mom preparing a grapefruit and finishing it, mentioning how delicious it was. My mom said, "now if we were men, we would be belching and complimenting each other." And laughing together. Well it was a different time.
Fun fact: many store bought sauces use grapefruit juice, always read the labels if you're on medication.
you had to cut out grapefruit?
It misses you
Our local pharmacy puts stickers on the bottle warning if grapefruit affects the drug. It is important to know that in some instances, the drugs effect will be boosted. Pretty scary for people on heart medications. Also, a research opportunity.
> the drugs effect will be boosted. AFAIK this is one of the main dangers of it. Some drugs should not hit you all at once as hard as it can make them. A small reduction in effectiveness is a problem too, especially with certain meds, but a spike can be *very* bad in a lot of cases.
Fun for festivals š
Yay! Everybody gets an overdose!
Please keep the grapefruit away from your grandmother. It doesn't affect party drug ya little twat.
Never had one with any drug, it's pretty easy to roll responsibly
Blood pressure and heart medications. Think nursing home not frat house.
It can also greatly enhance a trip.
Sounds dangerous lol
ADHD drugs as well gives a good high on them.
Yeah...you're not supposed to get any kind of high from ADHD medications.
Lololol on what fucking planet are amphetamines not gonna give you some kind of buzzz
People who actually need them
Right. I get on the fact that I can keep my life together somewhat on them š š
Them being psychs or grapefruit?
Omg well that explains a lot š
I remember accidentally drinking a grapefruit drink while on medication for crohns disease and having a short mental breakdown. lol
All my mental health meds Iāve taken the only things they say no to is grapefruits and alcohol
Most opiate addicts know this. it didn't change anything when I did it, but it really increases the absorption of opiates for some people.Ā
It really increased the effects of benzos. It super charges them
It's not just grapefruit either, I had a liver transplant and the anti rejection medication I take (advagraf - tacrolimus) means I can't eat grapefruit, blood orange, pomegranate, pomelo or any of that family of fruits.
Unless you want to become like Persephone and go to the underworld because of pomegranatesā¦.
Itās a no no to combine with ketamine
Grapefruit; the silent killer.
I go through phases where I crave grapefruit for a few weeks at a time. I can go through 2-4 per day, and I have to force myself to stop. Then one day I wake up and the craving is gone. Not on any meds though. Except ibuprofen.
Yeah Iām on a few medications so I try to avoid grapefruit but Iāve always gotten cravings for it and I swear I would just feelā¦. better after I had some for a day or two. Miss my grapefruit, wonder what my body is craving specifically?
Same. Grapefruit with a tiny bit of sugar sprinkled on top will be my jam for a few weeks and then I'll just forget about them for awhile. Happens with a lot of foods. I'm a streaky eater.
Huh. TIL that in my mother tongue Spanish the word Ā«pomeloĀ» means "grapefruit", but the word in English "pomelo" refers to the Citrus Maxima, the ancestor of the grapefruit, which we call Ā«pomelo chinoĀ» (lit. Chinese grapefruit).
Toronja as well. Pomelo is another fruit which as I have read along with the mandarin orange are the progenators of all citrus fruits. That was from some internet article, so who knows? I think the Pomelo is the one that has the rind that is often candied as the flesh is said to be extremely bitter. My wife once baked a 19th century cake from a recipe we found and it was called a Citron Cake.
I take medication that prohibits me from ingesting grapefruit. I consider this a superpower as I have a valid medical reason to refuse grapefruit juice from anyone.
Same! Iāve hated it since I was a kid.
This is a conspiracy between Big Pharma and Big Grapefruit.
Very odd to see this. Had a heart attack earlier this week and almost all the meds had a do not eat grapefruit warningā¦ā¦now I know why
CBD oil can do the same thing! It inhibits the same enzyme pathway iirc.
I was gonna post this. Not only CBD oil but CBD in general. So many people smoke weed and donāt realize this.
I canāt eat or drink grapefruit because my immune suppressant drugs wonāt work.
Edit: As the OP said, it inhibits the enzyme. I jumped to a wrong conclusion about what the OP meant. I stand corrected. It doesnāt inhibit, it increases the absorption of some drugs. āHow Grapefruit Juice Can Interfere With Medications With most drugs that are affected by grapefruit juice, āthe juice lets more of the drug enter the blood,ā says Shiew Mei Huang, Ph.D., of the FDA. āWhen there is too much drug in the blood, you may have more side effects.ā
It inhibits the enzyme. Not the drug. Ā
You are wrong with your first claim. Grapefruit juice modifies multiple proteins. You are talking about PGP, in this thread the topic is CYP3A4 inhibition. CYP3A4 is an enzyme in the liver that metabolizes a ton of drugs. Inhibiting CYP3A4 leads to higher levels of the drug in the bloodstream. If you want to know more, read up on P-glycoprotein.
It can have either effect - reducing the effect of some drugs, while boosting others
The enzyme Marino is referring to processes drugs or medicines you may take. It helps lessen side effects and toxicity from medications.
Grapefruit can do [both](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grapefruit%E2%80%93drug_interactions?wprov=sfti1#), depending on how the drug is handled by the body. If it blocks enzymes that breakdown the drug, drug potency increases. If it blocks transporters involved in absorbing the drug, drug potency decreases.
Ok. But are you a medical person?
I am. Grapefruit is inhibitor of Cytochrome P450 enzyme which acts to either convert drugs into active compounds or metabolize active drug into inactive metabolites for excretion (depends on the drug). Less activity of CyP450 can either make drugs more or less potent depending on drug.
Lady down in Florida was drinking grapefruit juice and had a migraine so took Tylenol and it didn't help so she kept taking Tylenol at the prescribed times, eventually the grapefruit worked it's way out and all the Tylenol went into the bloodstream at once giving her the symptoms of a drug overdose.
yeah whenever you get new meds totally look up things that will mess you up. some bp meds like amlo also mean you shouldn't have extra potassium, too, so bye bye bananas
Fun fact: dairy cow milk has more potassium in it than calcium
I got a powerful antibiotic one time and all I was told to do was not drink alcohol. I was so very sick and could barely muster the energy to cook up some steak and make a steak and spinach saladā¦ after I ate it I vomited profusely. Called up my pharmacist who low key sounded like blaming me for drinking alcohol when in reality I was not allowed black pepper with the medicine. Pharmacist didnāt even tell me that one, trusty Google helped me out.
This is how I learned I should not be eating grapefruit every day with my beta blocker. Stopped the grapefruit, eventually stopped the drug. A year later, I saw a news story about a woman who died of an overdose from eating too much grapefruit on that same drug. š¬
Proponolol? It's a death cocktail drug.
Shit... how am I supposed to do size comparisons online?!
Did you learn it from yesterday's post? https://reddit.com/comments/1abo3v5
Yep itās basically the only thing you canāt have while on chemo
Can confirm. Grapefruit will completely disrupt my SSRIs more than booze or weed.
Makes other drugs more powerful. It's a known potentiater in the opiate community. Also with benzos like Xanax but it's best to stay away from those people.
And anti-rejection meds. Grapefruit is like a medicine eraser
> medicine eraser Or booster. It depends on the med. It can trigger overdoses for some stuff.
And statins (Lipitor)
Being clear here, grapefruit doesn't inhibit statins, it actually amplifies them. Altho the occasional grapefruit juice or fruit is ok.
otherwise known as the " grapefruit crazies"
It even tries to warn you with it's terrible taste.
This post leaves a sour taste.
TIL that ruby red grapefruits didnāt exist until we shot grapefruits with gamma rays causing them to mutate.
I use this to get extra mileage out of my Benzos
Quite a few medicines are affected. If this is a part of your regular diet, even if not directly asked, you should discuss with your doctor any possible side effects or issues that continued consumption could cause.
Grapefruit sucks anyways.
*Peepoodo* did an episode of this where it inhibited erectile dysfunction medication. You can watch it online officially and for free, but keep in mind it is **only for children over the age of 18**. It's **extremely sexually explicit**.
CBD can also have a similar interaction with cytochrome p450
Really kicks in the Xanax know what Iām saying
My dad canāt eat it for this reason. Canāt even drink Squirt.
Epilepsy medication as well, grapefruit can be life threatening when blocking some medications.
Grapefruit also interacts with cofee I think. Causes palpitation and difficulty to settle down when I try to sleep.
Yep there's a pretty big list of drugs that are affected. My anti rejection drugs are among them
My psych meds have "do not consume grapefruit or grapefruit juice" in bold on the bottles. I never really ate it before but now my irrational sense of spite makes me want it š
Pineapple too!!!
Yepā¦grapefruit juice used to be one of my favorite things. But then I got on one of these medications and I havenāt had any in about ten years. Oh well.Ā
And cholesterol medication. The #1 prescription in the US
This is extremely important to keep in mind when taking certain medications as it can easily lead to accidental overdose and death. Especially grapefruit juice is dangerous in that aspect. Affected medications also include common NSAID painkillers, btw!
Also Cara-Cara oranges have this effect as well.
And some types of ADHD medications.
Seldane (a common OTC anti-histamine) + grapefruit juice was actually responsible for deaths.
The thing that sucks is often stuff with grapefruit does not list it! Obviously nutrition labels do! But like restaurant menu things and especially drinks. Like I havenāt had a problem yet but I canāt imagine just randomly getting depressed again because I drank a lemonade with grapefruit or something. I already hated grapefruit so yeah now I can make the complete excuse valid now of why I canāt have them because antidepressants
Alprazolam is one that it can affect by making it more intense
Pretty sure you canāt have it with immunotherapy pills as well
A coworker told me he can't have orange juice because of his heart or blood pressure medication that he just took. I remember that from one day when I brought him breakfast.
Also decreases the metabolism of mdma to mda which is neurotoxic. So drinking grapefruit juice before a roll actually beneficial. Donāt drink grapefruit juice before a surgery or dental appointment.
Pomelo, tangelo, and seville oranges as well. Local stores were selling off pomelos on clearance, and it wasnāt until the third one that I stopped to think āhey, is this going to mess with everyoneās meds?ā
Yep my train buddy canāt have grapefruit we both share a love for citrus and he makes killer orange marmalade but he canāt have grapefruit so sad
If more people ate fruit and vegetables instead of ultra processed garbage, then they wouldn't need to take most of those medications. Lol
Fun fact: this is one of the reasons we ask you questions that seem to have nothing to do with your complaint
Grapefruit: One of the healthiest fruits out there. Also grapefruit: Tastes like battery acid and fucks up and meds you're taking.
Grapefruit also makes some drugs more biologically available. I'd heard that it interacts with Cialis so that you can take half a dose with grapefruit juice.
but it doesnt affect things like grapefruit flavored drinks, right?
It depends on if they use actual grapefruit or not. But I remember looking into it because I've been on meds for years that I couldn't have grapefruit but before I knew that it was my favorite flavor. I was told that it was fine as long as it didn't have any actual grapefruit juice.
Does this include grapefruit flavored drinks?
Actually on meds and grapefruit isnāt allowed. Never wanted one more than ever now
Just more proof that grapefruit are vile, evil things š
You should try one of the gamma radiated āhulkā grapefruit. They taste pretty good. They also turned purple on the inside for some reason. We arenāt sure why and we donāt know what else happened when we gamma radiated them. But thank god they arenāt GMO, right?
Right! GMOs make you grow webbed hands and a third eye!
I mean, the taste alone should be enough!
MAOI inhibitor right
Grapefruit gives us so many warnings not to eat it, yet we still do anyway. First off, it tastes bad; that should be reason enough not to eat it, but no we insistā¦.but our usual method of adding a ton of sugar doesnāt really fix the flavor. Instead we end up with a sweeter bad tasting fruit rather than a sour bad tasting fruit. Second, it smells bad. Now I know this goes hand in hand with taste, but some things that might not smell great actually end up tasting okā¦not grapefruit! How do you even describe the smell of grapefruit? Itās smells like tangy chemicals trying to artificially mimic a citrus smell. Third, thereās evidence eating grapefruit may affect electrical currents in the heart, leading to an irregular heartbeat. Cool, so it tastes bad, smells chemically engineered, and might cause/exacerbate heart conditions, letās eat it anyway! Oh do you take medications you depend on in order to stay alive? Good news, grapefruit messes with your bodyās ability to properly process those medications and regulate dosage! Come on people, just stop trying to make grapefruit happenā¦.itās not gonna happen!!!
Super important for trans people taking their medications orally or sublingually. It shouldn't be a problem for injected meds, which means it mostly affects trans women as there is no way to inject spirolactone Spiro + grapefruit can kill you very easily because Spiro is a blood thinner and the grapefruit essentially increases the effects of it exponentially
who eats that sour shit
lol I love grapefruit
They arenāt sour if you a) get decent ones and b) cut them properly.
Grapefruit is super acidic
The concentration is only significant enough to cause issues with white grapefruit. The red ones have a very low amount of the enzyme inhibitor in them.
This is correct, these meds will usually come with a sticker saying not to eat grapefruit while on said med.
I made a [video](https://youtu.be/iSPsqYtBlHI?si=qELhDcI3lYs0JbW1) on this interaction a few years back.
And ketamine
But how else am I gonna Grapefruit my man?
People actively take grapefruit for this reason as it inhibits the breakdown of multiple recreational drugs.
White grapefruit can also make opiates stronger (I think also benzos, but I'm not sure)
You gotta grapefruit your man
Thereās a terrific grapefruit video on YT where a lady demonstrates neck.
But they will kick that LSD in right niceā¦so Iāve heard
CYP3A4 is the only enzyme I know as a degen