![]() ![]() The body’s ability to cope with drugs also weakens with age, experts say. Older people may be more vulnerable, because they are more likely to be both taking medications and drinking more grapefruit juice. The interaction also can be caused by other citrus fruits, including Seville oranges, limes and pomelos one published case report has suggested that pomegranate may increase the Taken with grapefruit, other drugs like fentanyl, oxycodone and methadone can cause fatal respiratory depression. Lurasidone and ziprasidone, gastrointestinal agents cisapride and domperidone, and solifenacin, used to treat overactive bladders. Occur even without underlying heart disease and has been seen in patients taking certain anticancer agents, erythromycin and other anti-infective drugs, some cardiovascular drugs like quinidine, the antipsychotics Many are linked to an increase in heart rhythm, known as torsade de pointes, that can lead to death. ![]() “Why do we have to have a body count before we make changes?”įor 43 of the 85 drugs now on the list, consumption with grapefruit can be life-threatening, Dr. “The bottom line is that even if the frequency is low, the consequences can be dire,” he said. Many hospitals no longer serve juice, and some prescriptions carry stickers warning patients to avoid grapefruit. Bailey argued, they are predictable and entirely avoidable. Think to ask if patients are consuming grapefruit or grapefruit juice.Įven if such incidents are rare, Dr. Bailey believes many cases are missed because doctors don’t How often such reactions occur, however, and how often they are triggered in people consuming regular amounts of juice is debated by scientists. Bailey, a clinical pharmacologist at the Lawson Health Research Institute, who firstĭiscovered the interaction by accident in the 1990s. “What drove us to write this paper was the number of new drugs that have come out in the last four years,” said Dr. ( The full list is online your browser must There are now 85 such drugs on the market, he noted, including common cholesterol-lowering drugs, new anticancer agents, and some synthetic opiates and psychiatricĭrugs, as well as certain immunosuppressant medications taken by organ transplant patients, some AIDS medications, and some birth control pills and estrogen treatments. David Bailey, a Canadian researcher who first described this interaction more than two decades ago, released an updated list of medications affected by grapefruit. Then she took verapamil, one of dozens of drugs whose potency is dramatically increased if taken with grapefruit. The previous week, she had been subsisting mainly on grapefruit juice. “She loved grapefruit juice, and she had such a bad migraine, with nausea and vomiting, that she could not tolerate anything else.” ![]() Louis, Mo., who treated the woman several years ago and later published a case report. “The culprit was grapefruit juice,” said Dr. Of the drug in her system, five times the safe level.ĭid she overdose? Was she trying to commit suicide? It was only after she recovered that doctors were able to piece the story together. But blood tests showed she had an alarming amount They were mystified: The patient’s husband said she suffered from migraines and was taking a blood pressure drug called verapamil to help prevent the headaches. Doctors had to insert a breathing tube, and then a pacemaker, Her heart rate was slowing, and her blood pressure was falling. The 42-year-old was barely responding when her husband brought her to the emergency room. The patient didn’t overdose on medication. ![]()
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