Some of your favorite foods can interfere with the effectiveness of your medication — and many drugs don’t mention the warning on their labels.
Medicines for heart disease, high blood pressure, depression — and even antibiotics — can all be blunted by chemicals in cheese, teas, fruit juices and even some candies.
While for many the negative effects will be minor, in rare cases they can cause severe problems and could even prove fatal.
Below are the five surprising foods and dietary supplements that doctors warn you should not consume while taking certain medications:
The above graphic shows five surprising foods that doctors warn you should avoid while taking certain medications
Grapefruit juice can interact with statins, doctors warn
Grapefruit juice
Grapefruit juice is often cited as an immune system booster or cholesterol-lowering drink.
But the acidic beverage can actually make statins — taken by millions of patients at risk of heart disease — less effective or even toxic.
Statins are normally broken down in the gut by an enzyme — scientifically named CYP3A — which reduces the amount entering the bloodstream.
But if someone drinks grapefruit juice before taking the drug, then a compound in the drink — called furanocoumarins — binds to the enzymes and stops them from working.
This means that patients receive a much stronger dose of statins than expected, putting them at risk of liver damage, dizziness and muscle pain among other effects.
Doctors at Harvard University in Massachusetts say only some statins are affected by grapefruit juice, including atorvastatin (sold under the brand name Lipitor), lovastatin (Mevacor) and simvastatin (Zocor).
But others — such as fluvastatin (Lescol) and pitavastatin (Livalo) — are not affected because they are broken down by a different enzyme.
Grapefruit juice can also interfere with calcium channel-blocking medicines that are used by blood pressure patients.
These medicines work by relaxing muscles in…
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