Can You Drink Grapefruit Juice With Cholesterol Medicine?

by | Last updated on January 24, 2024

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Can you drink grapefruit juice with cholesterol medicine? Statins are medicines that lower your cholesterol. Grapefruit or grapefruit juice affects some statins.

Do not drink grapefruit juice if you’re taking simvastatin

. Grapefruit juice increases the level of simvastatin in your blood and makes side effects more likely.

What medication should not be taken with grapefruit?


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). Some organ-transplant rejection drugs, such as Neoral and Sandimmune capsule or oral solution (both cyclosporine).

Can I drink grapefruit juice with atorvastatin?

Some substances can interact with statins


With some statins, drinking grapefruit juice, or eating grapefruit, is a bad idea

. Grapefruit juice can cause that statin to stay in your body much longer, and the drug can build up. This can increase the risk of muscle breakdown, liver damage, and even kidney failure.

What happens when you eat grapefruit while taking Lipitor?

Past research has warned that eating grapefruit or drinking grapefruit juice and taking statins for high cholesterol

may increase your risk for complications such as rhabdomyolysis, the breakdown of muscle tissue that may lead to kidney damage, joint pain, and muscle pain

.

How does grapefruit interfere with statins?


Grapefruit contains a chemical that can interfere with your body’s ability to break down or metabolize certain statin medications

. When statin takers eat large amounts of grapefruit, the level of statins in their blood can increase, raising the possibility of side effects.

Can you eat grapefruit if you take high blood pressure medicine?


Grapefruit contains compounds that may interfere with how your body absorbs some drugs, including some blood pressure medicines

. It can leave too much or too little of the drug in your bloodstream, which may be dangerous. Always ask your doctor or pharmacist if grapefruit could affect the medicine you’re taking.

Can I eat grapefruit in the morning and take Lipitor at night?

Does Lipitor have a grapefruit warning? Yes,

you should not eat grapefruit or drink grapefruit juice while taking Lipitor

(atorvastatin). Compounds in grapefruit can negatively interact with certain statins, including Lipitor, Altoprev (lovastatin), and Zocor (simvastatin).

Is grapefruit good for high cholesterol?


The red grapefruit group improved their cholesterol most, followed by the white grapefruit group

. They ended up with notably lower total cholesterol and LDL (“bad” cholesterol) than the comparison group.

What should you not eat or drink when taking statins?


Grapefruit juice

is the only food or drink that has a direct interaction with statins. Statins do not directly interact with any food but people taking statins should moderate their intake of saturated fats to help lower their LDL cholesterol and overall risk of cardiovascular disease.

Can I drink lemon juice with statins?


Limit your consumption of grapefruit or switch to “safe” citrus fruits

, such as blood oranges, clementines, lemons, limes, mandarins, navel oranges, and tangerines. Bitter oranges, pomelos, tangelos, and Seville oranges contain high levels of furanocoumarin and should also be avoided.

How much grapefruit juice is too much with statins?

Grapefruit juice increases the level of simvastatin in your blood and makes side effects more likely. Atorvastatin interacts with grapefruit juice if you drink large quantities (

more than 1.2 litres daily

), but an occasional glass is thought to be safe.

Can I drink orange juice while taking statins?

Sweet orange (citrus sinensis) may inhibit OATP, which helps mediate hepatic uptake and facilitates statin metabolism. Tangerines are related to sweet orange and may also inhibit OATP.

Patients should either avoid these juices altogether or limit consumption to 60 mL per serving

.

Can you drink grapefruit juice with Crestor?

So,

it’s safe to continue enjoying your grapefruit with pravastatin (Pravachol), rosuvastatin (Crestor)

, fluvastatin (Lescol), and pitavastatin (Livalo).

What should you avoid eating with high cholesterol?

  • Full-fat dairy. Whole milk, butter and full-fat yogurt and cheese are high in saturated fat. …
  • Red meat. Steak, beef roast, ribs, pork chops and ground beef tend to have high saturated fat and cholesterol content. …
  • Processed meat. …
  • Fried foods. …
  • Baked goods and sweets. …
  • Eggs. …
  • Shellfish. …
  • Lean meat.

How can I lower my cholesterol in 7 days?

  1. Eat heart-healthy foods. A few changes in your diet can reduce cholesterol and improve your heart health: …
  2. Exercise on most days of the week and increase your physical activity. Exercise can improve cholesterol. …
  3. Quit smoking. …
  4. Lose weight. …
  5. Drink alcohol only in moderation.

How can I lower my cholesterol fast?


Foods like oatmeal, apples, prunes, and beans are high in soluble fiber, which keeps your body from absorbing cholesterol

. Research shows that people who ate 5 to 10 more grams of it each day saw a drop in their LDL. Eating more fiber also makes you feel full, so you won’t crave snacks as much.

What drinks to avoid while taking atorvastatin?


Avoid drinking alcohol

. It can raise triglyceride levels and may increase your risk of liver damage. Grapefruit may interact with atorvastatin and lead to unwanted side effects. Avoid drinking more than 1 liter of grapefruit juice while taking atorvastatin.

Can I drink coffee while taking statin?

Caffeine is a nonspecific adenosine receptor blocker, and thus

drinking CC may block the myocardial protective effects of statins

.

Is banana good in high cholesterol?


The fiber and potassium in bananas can help lower cholesterol and blood pressure

. If you’re a fan of bananas, your cholesterol levels will thank you. Like all fruits, bananas are a good source of fiber, especially soluble fiber. Eating more of this type of fiber has been found to help lower cholesterol.

Does drinking water lower cholesterol?

The bottom line: “

No one has shown that drinking more water or fluid in general to improve day-to-day hydration status does anything to lower cholesterol levels

and decrease your risk for cardiovascular disease,” Sandon says.

Does honey lower cholesterol?

Reduce Risk of Heart Disease

Individually, both honey and cinnamon may lower risks of developing heart disease.

Honey has been shown to lower LDL (bad) cholesterol levels by 6%

, triglyceride levels by 11%, and potentially boost HDL (good) cholesterol levels.

Does drinking lemon water help with high cholesterol?

According to the latest research,

lemon juice may help lower cholesterol levels

and improve cardiovascular health. These benefits are largely due to the high levels of flavonoids and vitamin C found in the juice.

How long after eating grapefruit can I take medication?

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.

Is it OK to take vitamin D with statins?

Vitamin D supplement may have moderate or no effect on the dosage requirement or side effects of pravastatin, rosuvastatin and pitavastatin. Since vitamin D has mild HMG-CoA reductase activity,

it will work synergistically with all statins

.

Does grapefruit affect blood pressure?

Studies have shown that

eating grapefruit every day can lower systolic blood pressure by as much as five points

. This may be due to grapefruit’s high levels of potassium, which neutralize the negative effects of sodium (a common cause of hypertension).

What fruits interfere with high blood pressure medication?

People taking ACE inhibitors or ARBs should limit their intake of high-potassium foods like

bananas, oranges, avocados, tomatoes, white and sweet potatoes and dried fruits —, especially apricots

.

Why can’t diabetics have grapefruit?

Grapefruit is unique in that

it has an enzyme-binding ability

. This means that it may cause certain medications to pass from the GI tract into the bloodstream faster than normal, raising the amount of medication in your bloodstream, which can be potentially dangerous.

Does grapefruit affect blood pressure?

Studies have shown that

eating grapefruit every day can lower systolic blood pressure by as much as five points

. This may be due to grapefruit’s high levels of potassium, which neutralize the negative effects of sodium (a common cause of hypertension).

What should you not take with blood pressure medicine?

Sophia Kim
Author
Sophia Kim
Sophia Kim is a food writer with a passion for cooking and entertaining. She has worked in various restaurants and catering companies, and has written for several food publications. Sophia's expertise in cooking and entertaining will help you create memorable meals and events.