I heard about this today for the first time. Apparently, several medications - including blood pressure and anti-cholesterol meds - react badly with grapefruit juice. Even if you drink grapefruit juice in the morning and take the medication at night, the reaction can be severe and even fatal. Here's a news article about it. Apparently, Seville oranges and also limes can cause the same negative effect.
My dentist once told me that she had a patient whose teeth kept eroding, the enamel was just wearing away, bringing with it a slew of problems. They finally figured out that he cause of her troubles was the daily glass of grapefruit juice she was drinking. Apparantly you should be careful because of the acidity. One thing in the article caught my eye, though. They said that the grapefruit eliminates an enzyme necessary for breaking down the drug, and as a result too much of the drug is released into the system. So this means that they are overdosing to begin with, and counting on your body to break it down to acceptable levels. What if that enzyme is not functioning well enough? You have some sort of deficiency, or genetic mutation, etc. Is this the reason why some people function fine with Vicodin, for example, while others are completely knocked out by it?
It's sad that the medical community doesn't make patients more aware of food-drug interactions. Grapefruit is a doozey though. It interacted with all sorts of drugs. Off the top of my head I know it interactscwith Allegra Zoloft Buspar erythromycin (common antibiotics) tegretol Viagra Zocor Lipitor Procardia valium Hubby hasn't been able to eat grapefruit in 7 years, poor guy.
