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Author: Admin | 2025-04-28
Requires some prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) drugs taken by mouth to warn against eating grapefruit or drinking grapefruit juice while on the medication. Some of the categories of drugs that can interact with grapefruit are described below.Statin DrugsSome statins like simvastatin (brand name: Zocor), atorvastatin (Lipitor), and lovastatin (Mevacor) have food-drug interactions with grapefruit. These medications are used to lower cholesterol in people with high cholesterol. Consuming grapefruit can affect how statins work. Specifically, grapefruit can increase the blood concentrations of statins, increasing the risk of side effects. Doctors advise that you should avoid grapefruit and grapefruit juice altogether if you’re taking simvastatin. Drinking an occasional glass of grapefruit juice several hours before or after taking medicine atorvastatin should be safe. However, keep in mind that even with atorvastatin, you should not drink large quantities of grapefruit juice (more than 1.2 liters a day). You should talk to your doctor or pharmacist about which statin drugs are considered safe with grapefruit products. Grapefruit juice has little to no effect on certain statins, such as fluvastatin (Lescol), pravastatin (Pravachol), rosuvastatin (Crestor), and pitavastatin (Livalo).Calcium Channel BlockersCalcium channel blockers are a group of medications used to treat high blood pressure, angina (chest pain), and coronary artery disease. Some calcium channel blockers like nifedipine (Adalat CC, Procardia), felodipine (Plendil), amlodipine (Norvasc), diltiazem (Cardizem, Tiazac), and nisoldipine (Sular) can interact with grapefruit. This can affect how the medicine works, resulting in increased levels of the drug in the blood. Similar to statins, this interaction also increases the risk of side effects. Anticoagulants and Antiplatelet DrugsAnticoagulants are blood-thinning medications that prevent blood clots. Warfarin (Coumadin), an inexpensive, commonly prescribed blood thinner, can interact with grapefruit. This interaction increases the effect of warfarin and makes bleeding more likely. The same is true of certain antiplatelet drugs
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