Statins and Grapefruit

Find out the facts about the worlds most prescribed drugs – Statins, including the benefits and possible risks/side effects.

It’s quite unusual to read an article about the potential dangers of eating or drinking grapefruit whilst taking a prescribed drug like Statins. Unfortunately some statins and grapefruit just don’t mix and at worse could be lethal.

Grapefruit contains a compound called bergamottin which interacts with specific enzyme systems within your body such as P-glycoprotein and cytochrome P-450. Okay, I might have lost you there with all the medical terms! But just know that these enzyme systems have the job of breaking down statins and other drugs into more usable chemicals which get transported around your body.

When you eat or drink grapefruit around the same time that you take your statin, the components in the grapefruit do not allow these enzyme systems to break down the drug. This means that much more medication than intended reaches the bloodstream.

It can be a very dangerous situation and may cause a variety of health problems, such as liver damage or a rare condition called rhabdomyolysis (severe muscle and kidney damage). Visit our main page for more information about rhabdomyolysis and other statins side effects.

It only takes a small amount of grapefruit to cause an increase of statins into the blood system. Just 1 glass or 1 grapefruit is enough to have an impact.

Not All Statins Are Affected

Up to now, research has only discovered the following statins to be significantly affected by grapefruit interaction:

• atorvastatin (Lipitor)
• lovastatin (Mevacor)
• simvastatin (Zocor)

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.
Therefore, if you are taking simvastatin, atorvastatin, or lovastatin, you should avoid taking any form of grapefruit products.

Although the studies concerning grapefruit interactions with pravastatin, fluvastatin, or rosuvastatin were not as significant, it would probably be safe if you did not consume grapefruit a few hours before or after taking this medication, or avoid grapefruit altogether if you are taking other medications that may interact with grapefruit.