It's not the grapefruit, but more with grapefruit juice. If you eat a
lot of grapefruits, I guess that would be same as drinking grapefruit
juice. The grapefruit juice has a chemical that affects the liver
metabolizing factory, that can elevate the levels of many "statin"
drugs in the blood stream. This in turn can result in hepatotoxicity
(liver dysfunction) or rhabdomyolysis (muscle breakdown).
Some water-soluble statins such as Pravachol or Lescol are not as
affected, I believe, but other statin that are water-insoluble, such
as Zocor, Lipitor, Crestor, Mevacor, etc. are more affected--but don't
quote me on that. I also believe other drugs besides statins also
carry warning labels to avoid grapefruit juice. These are also drugs
that are metabolized by the liver. |
