I love grapefruit. No, seriously, I could eat an entire grapefruit for breakfast each and every morning. It always makes me feel good, inside and out, because I know the citrus fruit is good for me and is helping to improve my immune system thanks to all of the Vitamin C it's providing. What I didn't know, though, is that my healthy habit of eating a grapefruit a day can actually be slowly killing me since researchers say that grapefruit can actually cause you to overdose on some of your medication! Yikes.
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Publishing their findings in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, according to the BBC, a team at the Lawson Health Research Institute in Canada said that "the number of drugs which had serious side effects with grapefruit had gone from 17 in 2008 to 43 in 2012."
Basically, what's happening is that chemicals in grapefruit are wiping out an enzyme that breaks the drug down, which means more of the drug escapes into the digestive system than our bodies can actually handle. For example, one blood pressure drug reportedly had three times its normal levels after patients had it with a glass of grapefruit juice instead of water. Three times?! That's a really scary, dangerous number for people dealing with issues ranging from blood pressure, cancer, cholesterol and even their immune systems.
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All of this overdosing on grapefruit with prescription medication is causing varied side effects that "include stomach bleeds, altered heart beat, kidney damage and sudden death." Wait, death? That's definitely ONE big reason to talk to your doctor ASAP! I don't know if I want to give up my grapefruit habit but, well, if it's actually not making me any healthier and in fact badly damaging the effects of any medications I take, then I definitely need to rethink my breakfast options.
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