I saw this interesting email this week:

“Does Grapefruit affect the drugs you take?

If you look at the average breakfast table you’ll find many potential health hazards: coffee, breakfast cereals loaded with sugar, greasy bacon and fried eggs. So most of us would think grapefruit is a welcome nutritious addition.

But if you’re taking certain medications then you should steer clear of grapefruit. That’s because grapefruit contains a substance that interacts with a long list of drugs regularly found in medicine cabinets across the country.

Geraldine Moses, a senior pharmacist from the Adverse Medicine Events Information Line, says there is evidence that an average 200 ml glass of normal strength grapefruit juice (straight from the fruit) can cause “a clinically significant interaction with a list of drugs as long as your arm”.

ABC Health & Wellbeing story:
http://www.abc.net.au/health/talkinghealth/factbuster/stories/2008/01/23/2123319.htm

Listing of affected medications:
http://www.australianprescriber.com/magazine/25/2/artid/797”

The list of medications this may be an issue with is of concern: Amiodarone, Atorvastatin, Carbamazepine, Cisapride, Diazepam, Simvastatin and Triazolam are just a few where the link is being queried.