Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/XMWrYblrEB4 Grapefruit and grapefruit juice may cause you to overdose on many popular prescription drugs.  The FDA now repeats its 2017 warning to us and asks us to carefully read the label on any drug you are taking to see if grapefruit can interfere with its function Grapefruit juice blocks the enzyme in the small intestine that normally breaks down drugs causing you to absorb too much of a drug into your system.  And, as always, too much of a good thing isn’t good. The list of affected drugs includes: some statin drugs that lower cholesterol: Zocor (simvastatin), Lipitor (atorvastatin); blood pressure medications such as nifedipine (Procardia, Adalat CC); transplant rejection drugs: cyclosporine (Sandimmune, Neoral); Anxiety drugs: buspirone; steroids: budesonide for IBD (Entocort EC, Uceris); cardiac rhythm controllers: amiodarone (Pacerone, Nexterone). Do speak with your doctor and pharmacist about your medications and grapefruit juice as well as checking the labels and onlin