Interaction of Grapefruit Juice and Some Drugs Could be Fatal

Despite revealing that combining grapefruit juice and some drugs could result in fatal consequences more than two decades ago, a team of London researchers said that their suggestions are not being followed as evidenced by the number of adverse effects' cases of such a combination nearly tripling between 2008 and 2012. Researchers at London's Lawson Health Research Institute said that the number of cases have jumped from 17 in 2008 to 44 in 2012 with some of the adverse effects including kidney and respiratory failure, sudden death, gastrointestinal bleeding and renal toxicity.

Lead researcher Dr David Bailey said that the number of drugs with fatal side effects have also risen this year.

“This is a safety concern. We know the science of it but we want to make sure it's applied more to protect the guy on the street. What is really striking is the number of drugs we develop that have these serious side effects. There are 27 more drugs than there were in 2008, and 13 of those 27 have the potential to cause sudden death”, he said.

Source-Medindia