Some medications and some foods just don't go together. Food can reduce the effect of a drug, prevent or make digestion difficult, but a drug can also create chaos, kill appetite, or prevent the body from using nutrients, vitamins, or minerals.
The negative effect of foods that do not agree with the medicine taken is reflected in the fact that the organism does not use all the medicine taken, but only one part of it.
The effect of food-drug interactions is not always the same. It varies and depends on the dose of the medicine taken, the composition of the meal, gender, age, body composition, as well as the general health condition of the patient. Children, the elderly, adolescents, the malnourished, the chronically ill, smokers and alcoholics are at greatest risk, and these groups should take the utmost care about the mismatch between food and medicine.
Most of us like grapefruit, but it also has some harmful consequences for our health if taken with certain medications.
Grapefruit and its juice, whether freshly squeezed or from the freezer, contain the substance furanocoumarin.
After ingestion, this compound interferes with the action of liver enzymes, which are necessary for the absorption of the drug. And that means that the ingredients of the drug freely "cruise" through the body, because if the drug does not bind to these liver enzymes, its concentration in the blood automatically increases. This allows the side effects of the drug to be manifested easily and quickly, which can sometimes be life-threatening. That is why it is much better to completely eliminate this citrus from the diet at the time when you are taking the medicine.
There is a surprisingly long list of drugs that "do not like" grapefruit. These are, above all, those used to treat depression (antidepressants), psychosis and erectile dysfunction. It also does not go with medications against angina pectoris, hypertension, arrhythmia, increased blood cholesterol levels, involuntary body cramps, epilepsy, cancer, gastrointestinal reflux (return of contents from the stomach) and HIV infection. For patients taking these medications, even the smallest glass of grapefruit juice can cause side effects that can last for at least three days and longer. If you are taking any of these medications, forget about this fruit!
Still, there is a solution! A good substitute for grapefruit is orange, because it has similar nutrients, and there is no risk of it interacting with the medicine.
