Fruit and Drug Interactions

A recent study by a Canadian group has shown that taking certain prescription drugs with grapefruit juice can lead to adverse reactions due to high levels of the drug in the body as a result their metabolising enzyme in our body being deactivated by chemicals found in the fruit known as furanocoumarins. 

Without the enzyme, more of the ingested drugs will be available to our body making it toxic. It is said that taking one tablet of such a drug with grape juice is equivqlent to taking 10 tablets with plain water. An anti-hypertensive drug, felodipine, was reported to have increased its level to three times after patients had a glass of grapejuice compared with a glass of water.

Grapefruit juice can alter action of certain drugs in the body

So it is important to ask your doctors or pharmacists to help check for you which foods you are taking that might interact with your present medications. From my patients' experiences I came to know of some herbs which also interfere with antihypertensive medications causing dangerously low blood pressure (due to resultant drug overdose) with accompanying dizziness and possible collapse.