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Last Updated: Mar 14th, 2007 - 21:07:30 |
Do certain foods inappropriately interact with medications?
Grapefruit lovers who take medications on a regular basis should beware of how the citrus fruit affects drugs. To evaluate the effects of grapefruit juice, medical researchers studied 18 healthy patient subjects.
To monitor how felodipine, a popular blood pressure lowering medication changes with grapefruit juice, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill administered grapefruit juice and orange juice to the participants. To test grapefruit juice without the substance, furanocoumarin, it was removed. Subsequent to the patientŐs ingestion of the pill, researchers measured the amount of medication in their bloodstream.
The assessment showed that furanocoumarin-free grapefruit juice did not altar the amount of the medication. In fact, the same amount of medicine was found in patients who swallowed their medication with grapefruit juice and orange juice.
As seen with regular grapefruit juice, patients experienced up to an 420 percent elevation of felodipine in blood levels.
In conclusion, the researchers theorize that the evidence shows that furanocoumarins is an actual active ingredient in grapefruit juice. The substance triggers an interaction with medications. As a result, more foods containing furanocoumarins, should be identified to prevent any other prescriptions drug interactions. Researchers contend that the development of a commercially available grapefruit juice without furanocoumarins would serve as the perfect alternative for patients taking medications.
Medication interaction health tip: To avoid the medication interactions, check the labels, pamphlets and prescription literatures of all the prescriptions you are taking. Check the ingredients of various foods, supplements, vitamins, minerals and other ingested elements. Most importantly, follow food labels and do not mix alcohol with any type of medications.
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