Grapefruit juice could be a potential source of risky interactions if it is mixed with certain specific medications. Johns Hopkins Health Alerts has recently attempted for finding the reasons of such effects.According to this review, there are some medications which do not mix well with some specific foods. The grapefruits or the grapefruit juice is one of these. It may interact with adverse impacts if mixed with certain medications. Natural grapefruits normally contain substances which can cause activity of enzymes in the intestines and liver where the medications are processed. Such type of mix would in turn result in to risky increase of the drug level in blood.
Another risky interaction may also occur between the blood thinner ‘warfarin’ and ‘vitamin K’. This vitamin is present in several types of multi-vitamins and other supplements along with other sources. Medical effects of the ‘warfarin’ gets neutralized because of its mixing with vitamin K. it also causes high risk of blood clotting which is the main effect of ‘warfarin’.
Scientists have now been successful in identifying specific responsible chemical present in the grapefruit juice which is mainly causing the interaction on mixing. A recent research study showing such evidences has also been published in the “American Journal of Clinical Nutrition”.
“Furanocoumarins (FCs)” are the main responsible chemical compounds for such interaction, according to the scientists. It is actually a family of chemical compounds which when mixed with the grapefruit juice causes such interactive effects in human body. Scientists, in order to confirm their doubt, created grapefruit juice which was free from these FCs. This juice was then compared with the effects of the normal grapefruit juice with normal FCs.
Scientists analyzed the results of this study which involved volunteers who drank 8oz of whole grapefruit juice in addition to the administered dose of ‘felodipine’, a typical blood pressure medication. The blood concentration of felodipine was observed to be three fold higher in case of those who took 8oz of normal juice in comparison to those who took the FCs free grapefruit juice.
Scientists could conclude that the blood pressure was higher with normal juice intake and this could be a risk with low blood pressure. Researchers also feel that the findings would be further helpful in developing better understanding of drug-food interactions. Scientists further suggested that one should always follow the medication guidelines strictly preventing any chance of such drug-food interactions which could be fatal.
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