Fruit Juice Can Reduce Effectiveness of Drugs

BBC News reports findings discussed in a recent US event suggest that fruit juice could reduce the effectiveness of some medicines, including anti-allergy drugs. Grapefruit, orange, and apple juice are said to contain ingredients that interfere with the effectiveness of medication.

Researchers discovered that grapefruit juice especially had a reverse effect to fexofenadine, which is an antihistamine drug, thereby making it less potent. Researchers used volunteers to take the medication with water and with the juice. When taken with the juice, only half of the drug was absorbed. So far, these juices have been found to affect the oral absorption of etoposide, a chemotherapy drug, some beta-blocker drugs used to treat high blood pressure, and cyclosporine, taken by transplant patients to prevent rejection of their new organs. The study author Dr David Bailey mentions:

"This is just the tip of the iceberg - I'm sure we'll find more and more drugs that are affected this way."