Although you may think that you are supersizing your heath powers by mixing pills with grapefruits, think again. Doctors are now warning about the dangers that can result from mixing your meds with the citrusy fruit.
Health professionals say that grapefruit can have an adverse impact on the effectives of your medication by preventing the pills from breaking down in your intestines and liver. The lack of effectiveness could leave to overdoses of some drugs by causing patients, who don’t immediately feel “better” to take more than they are recommended, a recent BBC report revealed.
Researchers from the Lawson Health Research Institute in Canada first reported the dangerous link in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
“One tablet with a glass of grapefruit juice can be like taking five or 10 tablets with a glass of water…,” Dr. David Bailey, a researcher from the team, told BBC. “…You can unintentionally go from a therapeutic level to a toxic level just by consuming grapefruit juice.”
The type of pills that cause this issue include medications to aid with blood pressure, cancer prevention, cholesterol lowering, and immune system suppressants for organ transplants. The number of drugs that have dangerous side effects when taken with grapefruit has increased from 17 to 43 over the past four years, researchers claim.