Apple, Orange, and Grapefruit Juices Can Mess With Your Drugs

Grapefruit juice is a well-known enemy to many prescription drugs. Turns out, apple and orange juices can also interfere with medications. David Bailey, a professor of clinical pharmacology with the University of Western Ontario, warns that all three beverages contain compounds that can alter how certain medications are transported into the bloodstream and absorbed by the body. "The concern is loss of benefit from the drug," says Bailey, who presented an overview of the dangers on August 19 at the American Chemical Society's national meeting.

The list of medications that are affected includes statins; the anticancer drug etoposide; beta blockers atenolol, celiprolol, and talinolol; transplant rejection medication cyclosporine; and antibiotics ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin, and itraconazole.

"Your best approach," says Cynthia Reilly, an executive at the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, "is to take your medications with water."