Don’t think about drinking these juices if you take certain medications. If you do, it could lead to deadly consequences. Those specific juices could increase your medication to toxic levels,
Studies have found that taking your medicines with these five fruit juices can reduces the effectiveness of drug.
Pineapple Juice:
Pineapple contains a compound known as bromelain. Fresh pineapple should not be combined with Amoxicillin or tetracycline antibiotics. When fresh pineapple is combined with these types of medications, it can increase the amount of medication absorbed by the body. In this case, it might increase the side effects of the medications. [1]
If you are taking a prescription blood thinner, be careful with bromelain that could affect the body’s blood clotting abilities.
When it combined with medications that slow or prevent blood clotting – such as an anticoagulant or antiplatelet drugs – it can significantly increase your risk of bruising or bleeding.
bromelain is also known to react with antibiotics and sedative drugs such as benzodiazepines which is used to treat anxiety. If you’re suffering from a bacterial infection or taking medicines for depression or anxiety, avoid having pineapple juice.
Apple juice:
A few years back, doctors discovered the “grapefruit effect”—the fact that drinking grapefruit juice affects the way certain blood pressure medications work.
However, recent studies have found that even apple juice can affect drug absorption especially if you’re on warfarin [2].
Warfarin is a prescription medication, which makes the blood clot more slowly. While often called a “blood thinner,” it doesn’t really change the consistency of the blood.
Patients who are undergoing chemotherapy or taking Atenolol (Apple juice markedly reduced the systemic exposure to atenolol), an antihypertensive drug, should also avoid having apple juice or grapefruit juice as these healthy beverages could interfere with the drugs [3].
Cranberry juice:
When you are on warfarin, what you eat and drink is also very important. People who take the drug warfarin—also known by the brand name Coumadin—may have trouble with blood clotting if they also drink cranberry juice. Studies have found that cranberry juice contains flavonoids and compounds that could potentially affect the metabolism of warfarin or its clotting factors [4].
Grapefruit juice:
This juice is known to react with 40 different drugs. Studies have found that the medicines prescribed for high cholesterol, high blood pressure or heart arrhythmia could unfavourably interact with grapefruit juice.
When medicine is swallowed, it dissolves and the body absorbs it through cells in the small intestine. Grapefruit juice can interfere with this process, causing too much or too little medicine to be released into the body.
Some medicines, like statins prescribed to lower cholesterol, are broken down in the body (metabolized) by proteins called enzymes in our small intestine. Grapefruit juice can block the work of enzymes, increasing the amount of medicine absorbed by the body and risking an overdose. Other medicines, like Allegra (fexofenadine) used for treating allergies, are moved into the body’s cells with the help of proteins called transporters. Grapefruit juice can block the work of transporters, decreasing the amount of medicine absorbed by the body and reducing the medicine’s effectiveness [5].
If the label on your medicine reads “DO NOT TAKE WITH GRAPEFRUIT” or has similar words, heed the warning. It can save you a bushel of problems.
Orange juice:
Studies have found that citrus rich juices can also make medicines less effective and researchers advise people against having it with their medicines [6].
Orange juice is known to significantly reduce the effectiveness of beta blockers.
References
- A Survey on Pineapple and its medicinal value: Prasenjit Debnath , Prasanta Dey , Abhijit Chanda, Tejendra Bhakta. Dept. of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, C. L. Baid Metha College of Pharmacy,Chennai. Regional Institute of Pharmaceutical Science & Technology, Abhoynagar, Tripura
- Interaction between Warfarin and Apple Juice. The Canadian Journal of Hospital Pharmacy.
- Apple juice greatly reduces systemic exposure to atenolol.
- Cranberry juice and warfarin.
- Grapefruit juice–drug interactions. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology.
- Undesirable effects of citrus juice on the pharmacokinetics of drugs.
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