Aug. 19, 2008
Fruit Juices Block Common Drugs
Grapefruit, Orange, Apple Juices Decrease Absorption of Many Often-Used Drugs
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(CBS/iStockphoto)
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Video Archive Eye On Health CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook examines various health issues and treatments.
In 1991, David G. Bailey, PhD, and colleagues found that grapefruit juice increased blood concentrations of the blood pressure drug Plendil to possibly dangerous levels. Grapefruit juice, they later learned, slows down a key liver enzyme that clears Plendil - and about 40 other drugs - from the body.
Now Bailey reports that grapefruit, orange, and apple juices decrease the absorption of several important medications:
"This is just the tip of the iceberg. I'm sure we'll find more and more drugs that are affected this way," Bailey says in a news release.
Bailey revealed the new findings in a report to the 236th annual meeting of the American Chemical Society.
A substance in grapefruit juice called naringin seems to be the culprit. The compound apparently blocks OATP1A2, a transporter molecule in the gut, which carries some drugs from the small intestine into the blood. Orange juice contains hesperidin, a naringin-like substance. The culprit in apple juice remains unidentified.
"The concern is loss of benefit of medications essential for the treatment of serious medical conditions," Bailey says.
In their studies, Bailey and colleagues had healthy volunteers take fexofenadine with either a glass of grapefruit juice, a glass of water mixed with naringin, or pure water. Taking the drug with grapefruit juice or the naringin mixture halved the amount of drug that reached the bloodstream.
People should take their pills only with water, advises Bailey, a professor of clinical pharmacology at the University of Western Ontario, London, Canada. He suggests that people taking medications should check with their doctor or pharmacist before taking medications with fruit juices or whole fruits.
By Daniel DeNoon
Reviewed by Louise Chang
©2005-2008 WebMD, LLC. All rights reserved.
Add a Comment See all 15 Comments
- "...Me I will drink the natural occurring juices and you can have the pills you made. Humans are taught that there is a pill to fix every discomfort..." Posted by raskal_2 at 07:16 AM : Aug 20, 2008
The antibiotic "Cipro" is for "serious" infections. If you ever have a need for it, I think that you would choose it over fruit juice. Because whatever you have got, it ain''t going away without it. Cipro is one of the drugs they give you for Anthrax and you can drink juice all your life and it isn''t going to protect you from that. - Reply to this comment
- Ho Hum; so CBS finally has caught up with some decades old news.
It has long been known that Grapefruit Juice will screw up women''s birth contol pills, as well as many other drugs.
Isn''t there a street marbles competition you could be reporting on somewhere, in some back alley ? - Reply to this comment
- Not disputing that at all, but I posit that it is even more reason for understanding the "controlled poison" method of medication, and not assuming that it is the best, or only approach, as many of the foods necessary to maintain our health when in a non ill state, do interfere with the metabolism of things that perhaps we shouldn''t be taking in the first place...
- Reply to this comment
- ...Me I will drink the natural occurring juices and you can have the pills you made. Humans are taught that there is a pill to fix every discomfort from when they are small children. When they grow older they become addicted Then you recommend treating that with a pill. Whoa wake up.Drink the juice dude...
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- ApprxAm it is obvious your living depends on selling toxin to people. I will assume that you are ignorant to nutrition.
- Reply to this comment
- brianbwb:
Yes, the article says that fruit juices block the absorption of some drugs.
However, as stated in the second paragraph, it`s been known for almost 20 years that grapefruit juice permits the absorption of other drugs but interferes with their metabolism and excretion, which can cause the buildup of toxic levels in the blood of the patient. - Reply to this comment
- So this implies that fruit juice is a villain?
Gee, it couldn''t be possible that half the garbage that Dr''s. try to stuff down people could be made from putrid Wart Hog dung, fish entrails and Musk Ox genitals??
Sweet dreams America, oh, and give that kid a pill will you? He is starting to act intelligent. - Reply to this comment
- Yes indeedy doo baileycc. Great advice on curing everything with juice!!!!!! What a wonderful idea, If you are rejecting your liver transplant then just drink some magical juice! Have severe cancer???? Why a little apple juice will just clear that baby right up!!
For your sake I''''m going to assume you are ten years old or are mentally challenged. Now go ask momma to put some juice in your sippy cup and it will all be better.
Posted by bud28dy
Gosh golly, that''s so *** funny. - Reply to this comment
- It sounds like you can drink the juices but not with the pills. Maybe latter in the day after the drugs are absorbed.
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- Just try eating one of those pills. The juice tastes better, and that''s what makes me feel better. Yay juice! Go juice! I don''t want your non-caloric pills, Doctors and corporations!
- Reply to this comment
- if you have a choice between giving up the fruit juice and giving up the pills... throw the pills away. Big pharma will scream, especially when people began to get better without paying them a cent.
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- What is commonly referred to as "modern medication" is little more than a controlled poisoning of the body, with substances that hopefully will kill the hostile organisms before they kill the patient.
That fruit juice blocks their action is only good, as it shows that fruit juices do play a part in keeping the body healthy, even if that means that it also hinders the "controlled toxins'' from doing their job.
I posit that if we all eat more fruit and drank more fruit juices, a lot of illnesses wouldn''t attack us to begin with. - Reply to this comment
- Hey, bud28dy ... nobody said juice will cure what ails you. But baileycc is absolutely right that taking synthetic drugs that are foreign to the body will do you no good whatsoever. I''m a holistic health counselor, so I know of what I speak. Natural cures are far superior to anything a drug company will dish out. They don''t care about curing you - in fact, to do so would lessen their profits, and they''ll never allow that. They care about making money, whether they kill people in the process or not. And WebMD is funded by the pharmaceutical companies, and so are not even a little unbiased. Better consider the source, folks - follow the money trail.
- Reply to this comment
- Yes indeedy doo baileycc. Great advice on curing everything with juice!!!!!! What a wonderful idea, If you are rejecting your liver transplant then just drink some magical juice! Have severe cancer???? Why a little apple juice will just clear that baby right up!!
For your sake I''m going to assume you are ten years old or are mentally challenged. Now go ask momma to put some juice in your sippy cup and it will all be better. - Reply to this comment
- What a simple solutions, don''t take synthetic drugs that are foreign to the body that overworks the liver and kidney, just drink fresh juices with worlds of benefits.
- Reply to this comment
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