What happens if you eat grapefruit while taking Zocor?
Grapefruit contains substances called furanocoumarins, which interfere with liver enzymes that break down the medication. As a result, blood levels of the drug’s active ingredient become dangerously elevated, which can lead to a serious muscle disorder or liver damage.
What happens if you eat grapefruit when you’re on statins?
Some substances can interact with statins With some statins, drinking grapefruit juice, or eating grapefruit, is a bad idea. Grapefruit juice can cause that statin to stay in your body much longer, and the drug can build up. This can increase the risk of muscle breakdown, liver damage, and even kidney failure.
Why does grapefruit affect medication?
Many drugs are broken down (metabolized) with the help of a vital enzyme called CYP3A4 in the small intestine. Grapefruit juice can block the action of intestinal CYP3A4, so instead of being metabolized, more of the drug enters the blood and stays in the body longer. The result: too much drug in your body.
What medication should you not eat grapefruit while taking?
Examples of common medications that interact with grapefruit juice include certain statin cholesterol drugs such as atorvastatin (Lipitor), lovastatin, simvastatin (Zocor), felodipine (Plendil) and other calcium channel blockers, clarithromycin (Biaxin), and loratadine (Claritin).
How much grapefruit is safe with statins?
Do not drink grapefruit juice if you’re taking simvastatin. Grapefruit juice increases the level of simvastatin in your blood and makes side effects more likely. Atorvastatin interacts with grapefruit juice if you drink large quantities (more than 1.2 litres daily), but an occasional glass is thought to be safe.
Can I eat oranges while taking statins?
Limit your consumption of grapefruit or switch to “safe” citrus fruits, such as blood oranges, clementines, lemons, limes, mandarins, navel oranges, and tangerines. Bitter oranges, pomelos, tangelos, and Seville oranges contain high levels of furanocoumarin and should also be avoided.
Why should grapefruit be avoided with some medications?
What medication can you not eat grapefruit?
Medicines affected by grapefruit
- Statins. Statins are medicines that lower your cholesterol.
- Calcium channel blockers.
- Anticoagulants.
- Antiplatelet medicines.
- Ciclosporin and immunosuppressants.
- Entocort.
- Cytotoxic medicines.
- Other medicines.
How long should you wait to eat grapefruit after taking medication?
This makes it more likely that you will have side effects from the medicine. Interactions can happen up to three days after eating or drinking grapefruit. This means you cannot drink grapefruit juice in the morning and take your medications later in the day to stop possible medicine interactions.
Why should you avoid grapefruit when taking statins?
Grapefruit contains a chemical that can interfere with your body’s ability to break down or metabolize certain statin medications. When statin takers eat large amounts of grapefruit, the level of statins in their blood can increase, raising the possibility of side effects.