An urgent warning has been issued to people who take daily medication because there’s a common fruit that could stop them working entirely.
In fact, many common medicines – everything from blood thinners to antidepressants – come with warnings not to eat any grapefruit or drink any grapefruit juice while you’re on them.
That’s because of a little known quirk in the way grapefruit affects the body.
Grapefruit contains a class of chemicals known as furanocoumarins.
These disrupt the normal function of liver proteins which break down and absorb medicines. Oddly, this actually leads to the medicines becoming more effective rather than less, but could increase your blood levels of the drugs beyond the dosage you were supposed to take.
Just one grapefruit or one glass of grapefruit juice can be enough to alter how the medications work.
And the effect lasts for days. One glass of grapefruit juice now and you won’t be able to take your medicines safely for up to three full days.
The NHS warns: “Grapefruit juice can affect some statins and increase your risk of side effects. A doctor may advise you to avoid it completely or only consume small quantities.”
35 common medicines affected by grapefruit
Medicines that can be affected by grapefruit include:
Cholesterol medications including lipitor and mevacor
Blood pressure pills including felodipine, nifedipine and losartan
Heart rhythm medications including Amiodarone and Dronedarone (Multaq)
Anti infection medications including Erythromycin, Rilpivirine, Primaquine and Albendazole.
Most antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs including Rilpivirine, Lurasidone, Ziprasidone, Buspirone, diazepam/valium, midazolam and Triazolam.
Blood thinners including Apixaban, Rivaroxaban (Xarelto), Clopidogrel and Ticagrelor (Brilinta).
Pain medicines including oxycodone and colchicine.
Erectile dysfunction medicines like sildenafil/Viagra, Taladafil/Cialis, Tamsulosin (Flomax) and silodosin (Rapaflo).