why cant i drink grapefruit juice and take diazepam at tha same time?

Question

what does grapefruit juice and valiun not mix and why? thank you....real answer only....thank you.......is it the acid or enzymes

Answer 1

All citrus fruit contain the chemical naringin. Grapefruit has the most naturally occuring naringin of all the citrus fruits. It is the chemical that Judydoc alluded to in that it inhibits the breakdown of the drug by the liver. What this all means is that it you eat of drink grapefruit and take medication, it will cause the liver to not metabolize the medication properly. This will cause an excessive amount of the drug to in remain in your body when you take the next scheduled dose. This may lead to many side effects including an overdose. In the case of cardiac meds, it can cause very low blood pressure that may lead to fainting spells or worse. Stay away from grapefruit while taking your meds.

Answer 2

I don't know if it is the acid or the enzymes but I have been told that grapefruit juice will affect the absorption of the diazepam. You just can't take them at the same time but at different times of the day should be okay I think.

Answer 3

Something in grapefruit juice - no one knows what - blocks the action of specific enzymes needed to absorb and break down drugs. These enzymes, found in the intestinal wall and liver, are called cytochrome P-450 3A4 and 1A2 (CYP3A4 and CYP1A2, for short).

By inhibiting the action of these enzymes, grapefruit juice increases your body's absorption of certain drugs, and also slows the process of breaking them down in the liver. Thus certain drugs affected by these enzymes stay in the body longer than normal.

Grapefruit juice can even enhance your response to caffeine, resulting in nervousness and over-stimulation.

Interestingly, grapefruit juice seems to be the only citrus juice to have this effect.

Answer 4

Administration of grapefruit juice in humans results in a decrease in the level of CYP3A in the intestine (2), an important site for metabolism for many medications. This mechanism would account for the increase in levels of medications that are metabolized by CYP3A when concomitantly administered with grapefruit juice.

Taken together, it increases the concentration of the medication in the bloodstream.

Answer 5

The acid in grapefruit juice inhibits one of the enzymes (I believe its CYP3A4) in the CYP degradation pathway in your liver. So it interferes with the process of metabolizing the diazepam in your body and may make it less effective.