Can you eat grapefruit on blood pressure medicine

If you're on blood pressure medication, you should avoid eating grapefruit. The reason why is that grapefruit is very acidic and breaks down certain medications much faster. For some people, this causes them to absorb too much of the medicine and for others, not enough. Blood pressure medications that are affected by grapefruit juice include calcium channel blockers such as nifedipine.

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Eating grapefruit or drinking grapefruit juice can cause some medicines to enter your body faster. This makes it more likely that you will have side effects from the medicine.

Interactions can happen up to three days after eating or drinking grapefruit. This means you cannot drink grapefruit juice in the morning and take your medications later in the day to stop possible medicine interactions.

Do all medicines interact with grapefruit?

Only some medicines interact with grapefruit. Examples include medicines for:

  • High cholesterol: atorvastatin (one brand: Lipitor) and simvastatin (one brand: Zocor)

  • High blood pressure: felodipine (one brand: Plendil), nifedipine (one brand: Procardia), and nisoldipine (one brand: Sular)

  • Heart arrhythmia (when your heartbeat isn’t normal): amiodarone (one brand: Cordarone) and disopyramide (one brand: Norpace)

If you don’t know if the medicine you are taking interacts with grapefruit, ask your doctor or pharmacist. Your doctor usually can prescribe another medicine that doesn’t interact with grapefruit.

Do all fruit juices interact with medicines?

All other fruit juices, even other citrus juices, are safe to drink when taking medicine. There is no proof that these other juices interact with medicines.

What if I take a medicine that interacts with grapefruit?

An interaction can occur even if you eat or drink a small amount of grapefruit. However, if you like grapefruit and want to continue to enjoy it, ask your doctor if there is a different medicine for you that doesn’t interact with grapefruit.

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Most Americans who drink grapefruit juice do so for breakfast -- a time of day when many people also take medications. Grapefruit juice, it turns out, can affect some medications. So you may need to rethink your morning drink.

Don’t drink grapefruit juice if you’re taking any of these medications, unless advised to by your doctor:

  • Some statins (cholesterol-lowering drugs): lovastatin (Mevacor), atorvastatin (Lipitor), simvastatin (Zocor). (Other statins such as fluvastatin (Lescol), pravastatin (Pravachol), and rosuvastatin (Crestor) have little or no interaction with grapefruit juice.)
  • Antihistamines: fexofenadine (Allegra)
  • Some type of calcium channel blockers (blood pressure drugs): felodipine (Plendil), nifedipine (Adalat, Afeditab CR, Procardia)
  • Certain psychiatric drugs: buspirone, triazolam (Halcion), carbamazepine (Tegretol), diazepam (Valium), midazolam (Versed), sertraline (Zoloft)
  • Some immunosuppressants: cyclosporine (Neoral), tacrolimus (Prograf)
  • Certain pain medications: methadone
  • The impotence drug (erectile dysfunction): sildenafil (Viagra)
  • Some HIV medication: saquinavir (Invirase)
  • Some antiarrhythmics: amiodarone (Cordarone, Nexterone, Pacerone)

There are alternatives to many of these drugs. So, talk to your doctor about the possibility of using a different medication if avoiding grapefruit juice is not an option.

When you’re starting a new medication, it’s always a good idea to ask your doctor or pharmacist about any potential interactions between the new medication and foods, supplements, or other drugs you’re already taking.

What blood pressure meds should not be taken with grapefruit?

Here are examples of some types of drugs that grapefruit juice can cause problems (interact) with:.
Some statin drugs to lower cholesterol, such as Zocor (simvastatin) and Lipitor (atorvastatin)..
Some drugs that treat high blood pressure, such as Procardia and Adalat CC (both nifedipine)..

What fruits interfere with high blood pressure medication?

Bananas and other potassium-rich foods, plus ACE inhibitors. If you take blood pressure-lowering ACE inhibitors with potassium-rich foods, including bananas, avocados, tomatoes and dried apricots, you can get high potassium levels in your body, which can lead to potentially dangerous heart arrhythmias, Brown warns.