I Miss My Grapefruit!!

[jshawley]

So, why do the various 'statins ruin my fun with grapefruit? (A rhetorical question, really.)

Is there any cholesterol medication that permits consumption of grapefruit?

I love the stuff, and wish I could imbibe in it again (no, I don't add sugar :wink2.

 

[gprellwitz]

According to http://cholesterol.about.com/od/statindrugs/a/grapefruitstat.htm
you should consider:

Other statins do not seem to demonstrate the same, profound effect with grapefruit as seen with the other statins. These would include:

• rosuvastatin (Crestor®)
• pravastatin (Pravachol ®)
• fluvastatin (Lescol ®)

Some scientists think that this may be due to the fact that these statins are not broken down by the same enzymes.

 

[mikea]

:wink2: I've had a couple of grapefruit in the fridge that I keep forgetting I have. I think I could go a long time without it, but dammit, if you told me I couldn't' have any, I'd want it RIGHT NOW!

 

[AuntPeggy]

I would like the answer, too. I used to have grapefruit every weekend when in season. When I got my first prescription for Lipitor, my doctor told me absolutely that I could never eat grapefruit again. I do so miss it.

 

[RMCN172RG]

FWIW and this is not NOT medical advice.

Queried my doctor about this and was told the reason is that the same enzyme that break downs the statin breaks down grapefruit. So eating a grapefruit slows down the breakdown effectively increasing the dose of the statin.

Recommendation enjoy a grapefruit once in while but don't go on a grapefruit diet.

 

[woodstock]

No sugar on grapefruit? Insane! I even add it to GF juice...

 

[Areeda]

I discussed it with my doctor also. He says it depends on the dose of lipitor and as stated above there are other statins without the restriction. I'm on the minimum dose (10 mg) and an occasional 1/2 grapefruit preferably at the other end of the day is allowed.

The statement above that the effect is to effectively increase the Liptor dosage by delaying the breakdown is how I too understand the problem.

Joe

 

[flyingcheesehead]

No sugar on grapefruit? Insane! I even add it to GF juice...

Yeah... Grapefruit is some sour stuff! You'd think, evolutionarily speaking, that we would not eat it because anything that sour must be poisonous.

 

[bstratt]

According to http://cholesterol.about.com/od/statindrugs/a/grapefruitstat.htm
you should consider:

Interesting - I'm on pravastatin and I as told no grapefruit!

 

[gprellwitz]

Interesting - I'm on pravastatin and I as told no grapefruit!

Listen to your MD, not what some quack posted on these interweb thingies!

 

[BillTIZ]

Was on Lipitor.. changed to Vytorin... been told the same thing.

 

[TangoWhiskey]

Never heard of this restriction before! Interesting!

 

[bbchien]

All medications go out through huge pipes in the liver. Grapefruit and the HMGCoA transferase meds (lipitor, etc) all go out through the same pipe.

"Honey, your sink's backed up!"

Leafy greens and Coumadin (the oral blood thinner) are the same way.

 

[Ghery]

Leafy greens and Coumadin (the oral blood thinner) are the same way.

One of the (many) reasons I was glad to be taken off that stuff in late February. The easiest way to stabilize the dosage was to avoid green leafy stuff. Sure glad to be able to go to Olive Garden and pig out on their all you can eat salad again.

 

[bbchien]

I think I posted (somewhere?) that my part 121 guys on coumadin usually travel with their day's greens (for six consequitive days) weighed out in individual disposable plastic kitchen containers in the cooler, and eat no "on the road" greens at all, other than "as packed".