The Little-Known Dangers Of Grapefruit!
Posted by Michelle Moquin on April 6th, 2010
This was sent to me by a trusted source and I wanted to pass it along to you. With spring here and summer before you know it, living on fresh fruits from the Farmer’s Market, is my fave summer indulgence. And when I can’t make it to the Farmer’s Market, a local grocery store called the Berkeley Bowl is my next destination. What I love about the ‘Bowl’ is that there is never just one type of orange of one type of tomato. No, this place graces their aisles with fruits and veggies, local grown and imported. It would be no surprise to find 10 different varieties of grapefruits.
So speaking of grapefruits, here’s a little something of interest to read about one of my fave fruits, and possibly something to heed. This info was certainly a surprise to me:
Because of Dr. Sinatra’s enthusiasm for coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), a colleague recently e-mailed me about early cell research suggesting grapefruit may improve the body’s ability to absorb CoQ10. Reviewing that research took me into a time warp, looking back at the research on grapefruit over the last decade.
I thought back to an alarming article aptly named The Grapefruit Challenge,1 by a nurse named Amy Karch, MS, RN. It was published in the American Journal of Nursing back in 2004 and her patient story was really gripping.
Imagine being a retired upstate New Yorker, literally able to enjoy “the fruits” of your years of labor in your new role as a snowbird—trading in long, cold winters for the sun, relaxation, and fresh citrus fruits in Florida. Karch shared the sad saga of one such gentleman. After two months of wintering in Florida, he found himself in an emergency room with fatigue, muscle cramps, and a fever. What possibly could have gone awry?
Death by grapefruit?
That patient’s story really touched my own heart. His profile was just like so many of the people I was advising as a cardiac nurse, as well as members of my own family. He had a few cardiac risk factors, including elevated cholesterol for which his doctor had started him on atorvastatin (Lipitor).
He was exercising to shed extra pounds, and like many of my own Connecticut patients, he loved to pick and juice the fresh grapefruit off his own trees in Florida and pour himself two or three glasses every day.
What we didn’t know then, but do now, is that grapefruit juice contains bergamottin, a compound that interferes with your body’s ability to break down and use statin medications. This can cause a dangerous statin buildup in your body, which can result in liver damage, severe muscle and kidney damage (called rhabdomyolysis), and even death—the latter of which tragically happened to the gentleman from New York.
But the impact of grapefruit juice doesn’t end there. In the 1980s, calcium channel blockers—a class of drugs used to treat high blood pressure, angina, and arrhythmia—were the new kid on the block. By 1991, it was discovered that grapefruit juice inhibits the enzyme that metabolizes calcium channel blocking drugs—so patients could become hypotensive, with their blood pressure dropping so low that they blacked out.
The list of drugs affected by grapefruit doesn’t end there
In addition to the cardiac drugs I just mentioned, there are at least fifty known medications prescribed for cancer, depression, pain, impotence, HIV, anticoagulation, and allergies that are affected by grapefruit. It can either cause these drugs to be poorly absorbed or accumulate in your body reaching toxic levels.
The trouble is that the signs of a problem may be insidious and subtle. For instance, someone taking an antidepressant may have too much, or too little energy—depending on the specific drug interaction. Someone pumping vitamin C levels with grapefruit to fight an infection may take longer to improve despite the antibiotic they are taking, or they can develop diarrhea.
According to a more recent British study, postmenopausal women eating half a fresh grapefruit daily were 30% more likely to develop breast cancer than those not consuming the fruit, and we know that even HRT can be affected if you love your grapefruit. That’s because it’s speculated that grapefruit may directly increase estrogen levels.
Plus, Dr. Sinatra has cautioned men that grapefruit augments the body’s production of aromatase, an enzyme that converts testosterone to estrogen in men. He even had a patient with ED (erectile dysfunction) that was caused by daily intake of grapefruit juice. After discontinuing grapefruit juice, the ED resolved over a few weeks.
The list of grapefruit–drug interactions is so long that the FDA mandates drugs undergo testing for reactions with this fruit, and an appropriate warning label is included with each prescription. Nevertheless, it’s reported that many patients, nurses, and doctors aren’t aware of the interactions or the potential serious consequences.
So, what’s the take-home message for you?
First and foremost, you want to read the labels on any products you take, and be aware of food–drug interactions—they are real. If you are taking anything that has a warning about grapefruit on the label, eliminate it from your diet until you can discuss your options with your doctor. He or she may even opt to change your medication.
If you’re not on a medication with a grapefruit warning label, Dr. Sinatra recommends enjoying grapefruit occasionally—not as a daily practice. That way you help avoid hormonal changes that can be caused by grapefruit.
As for the news that grapefruit may increase the absorption of CoQ10, at this point there’s only cell research—and the results are very preliminary. So there’s no concrete evidence that warrants increasing your grapefruit intake. But it’s something Dr. Sinatra will be following closely—and as news develops, he’ll be reporting it in his monthly print newsletter, Heart, Health & Nutrition.
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Nick: Feel free to e-mail me your particulars. However, I may not receive your e-mail as it is rare that I get e-mail from readers.
ZL: Thank you. :)
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my ‘loyal’(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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April 7th, 2010 at 12:22 am
Michelle
Thank you for this article. My uncle suffered so much because of his love of grapefruit juice. He was taking a drug to help him stop smoking at the time. It nearly killed him.
You may just be saving a life as I write. Thank you for thinking so broadly.
Yancy
April 7th, 2010 at 12:37 am
I just got off work. I know that is not news, but I feel so good leaving work today.
I want to tell the people on the island and those of you who have visited and went home complaining about out phone service that relief may be in sight. Here it is.
+++++++++++++++++++++
AT&T network expansion includes Hawaii
April 6, 2010 5:40 PM ET
AT&T will spend $1 billion this year to improve its business network and services, including installation of core routers in Hawaii.
The core routers in Hawaii and Guam will provide an interconnection for transpacific cables between the U.S., Australia, Singapore, China and Japan and improve performance in the Asia Pacific network, the company said Tuesday
.
AT&T has poured more than $4 billion into its business network and services since 2006, serving more than 3.5 million business customers.
The new spending is part of a previously announced capital spending program, which will total between $18 billion and $19 billion.
The announcement comes a few weeks after officials said they would install more than 70 new cell sites and upgrade more than 550 existing locations to its 3G network technology.
The 2010 plan includes:
• Enhancing AT&T’s current portfolio of services and applications to expand its capabilities in managed hosting, cloud services and security.
• Expanding mobile applications to support the dramatic increase in demand for mobile broadband-based services.
• Creating applications for the finance, manufacturing, retail, health-care, education and government sectors.
• Increasing broadband speeds up to 24 Mbps downstream in more than 120 markets across AT&T’s 22-state footprint.
• Building out its global network in Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, Vietnam, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Panama and Peru.
Copyright 2010 bizjournals.com
==========================
Hafa adai
Anna
April 7th, 2010 at 12:45 am
Hafa adai Anna
I waited to hear from you or Peter to get my news. I am on Maui, but my heart is still on Guam.
Thanks for keeping me informed
Lei
April 7th, 2010 at 12:53 am
I work on the wharf. There is a lot of stuff going on. I can’t believe that it is just about removing some sunken boats. A lot of stuff that we are not telling the public about is being pulled up.
======================
Port Removes Vessels Sunk During Pongsona
Last Updated on Tuesday, 06 April 2010 16:56
Written by News Release
Tuesday, 06 April 2010 15:55
Guam – Guam News
Guam - Smithbridge Guam has begun the process of removing vessels that sunk in the Marinas during Supertyphoon Pongsona.
Four private vessels will be removed from the Hagåtña Marina and three private vessels from the Agat Marina. The Port Authority of Guam issued out a bid late last year for the removal and the project was awarded to Smithbridge Guam Inc.
The company will be paid $108,000 for the work which will come from port insurance settlement funds.
“Removing these sunken vessels will help alleviate any problems with other boaters having to maneuver around the vessels and also will allow the Port to develop the area to provide more space for boaters,” said Port General Manager Enrique J.S. Agustin.
The port will determine upon completion of the project the proper means to dispose of the vessels and the disposal will be conducted by Smithbridge Guam Inc.
The removal project, which began today, is expected to occur over the next few weeks.
Written by :
=============================
So Howie,( I hope I am not being too familiar) What is happening? Could this be a dodge to keep us from knowing that a space ship is being hauled uP?
Hafa adai
Suki
April 7th, 2010 at 1:00 am
Hafa adai
Peter I hear that the Department of Defense is attempting to take over the Port of Guam. They are planning to us $50 million to improve our Port.
That much money buys a lot of control. How about some investigative reporting in this area Peter.
Toby
April 7th, 2010 at 1:07 am
I received this email from a friend.
————————–
I don’t care who you are – this is just way to significant to be
purely coincidental.
The year is 1947
Some of you will recall that on July 8, 1947, a little over 60 years
ago, witnesses claim that an unidentified flying object (UFO) with
five aliens aboard crashed onto a sheep and mule ranch just outside
Roswell, New Mexico . This is a well known incident that many say has
long been covered up by the U.S. Air Force and other federal agencies
and organizations.
However, what you may NOT know is that in the month of April 1948,
nine months after that historic day, the following people were born:
Albert A. Gore, Jr..
Hillary Rodham
John F. Kerry
William J. Clinton
Howard Dean
Nancy Pelosi
Dianne Feinstein
Charles E. Schumer
Barbara Boxer
Stanley Ann Dunham (Birth Mother to B.H. Obama II)
See what happens when aliens breed with sheep and jackasses?
I certainly hope this bit of information clears up a lot of things for you. It did for me.
—————————–
This is another example of how stupid the right believes their followers are. They know that they will not check the accuracy of their claims.
I checked and emailed my friend back this.
===========================
As usually like the Fox channel the republicans lie because they don’t
expect their listeners to check their facts or to seek another opinion.
I don’t know if your uncle was lying or just too stupid to check the
facts before he mailed it out. But here are the facts see for yourself.
Your suspicions should have been aroused when they listed the mother of
Obama, if she had been born in 1948, that would have made Obama too
young to be President.
Albert A. Gore, Jr. Born March 31, 1948
.
Hillary Rodham Born October 26, 1947
John F. Kerry Born December 11, 1943
William J. Clinton Born August 19, 1946
Howard Dean Born November 17, 1948
Nancy Pelosi Born March 26, 1940
Dianne Feinstein Born June 22, 1933
Charles E. Schumer Born November 23, 1950
Barbara Boxer Born November 11, 1940
Stanley Ann Dunham Born November 07, 1942
(Birth Mother to B.H. Obama II)
Shall i clue in your uncle. i will of course delete any reference to your email.
+++++++++++++++++++
Keith
April 7th, 2010 at 1:09 am
Write-Offs for Business Owners
Sidney Kess, Esq., JD, CPA
If your business had a rough year in 2008 and struggled through 2009, there are valuable write-offs that you can take advantage of right now.
Net operating loss (NOL) refunds. If you are an owner of a business that suffered a loss during 2008 or 2009, a “carryback loss” can provide you with a refund of taxes paid by the business for the prior five years (rather than the usual two years carryback period).
If your business is unincorporated — for example, you are a self-employed “sole proprietor” — claim the refund by filing IRS Form 1045, Application for Tentative Refund.
If the business is a corporation, it can claim the refund by filing IRS Form 1139, Corporation Application for Tentative Refund.
“1244 stock” losses. If you were an owner of a private corporation and during 2008 incurred a loss from selling its shares or liquidating the business, your loss may qualify for a huge deduction against income — instead of being subject to the capital loss deduction limits.
Why: The stock of privately owned small corporations often qualifies as “Section 1244 stock.” Losses incurred on such stock are fully deductible up to $50,000 per year, or $100,000 on a joint return. Often owners aren’t aware of this opportunity.
Stock generally qualifies as “1244 stock” when it was originally issued to the shareholder (not purchased from another owner) by a small business corporation that received no more than $1 million of paid-in capital (money the owners put into the company for their stock). For details, see IRS Publication 550, Investment Income and Expenses.
“Section 179″ expensing and bonus depreciation. If you are a business owner, the amount of newly purchased business equipment that can be immediately deducted (“expensed”), instead of depreciated over a period of years, doubles to $250,000 in 2009.
In addition, equipment purchases in excess of the amount that may be expensed qualify for new “bonus depreciation” — 50% of their cost may be depreciated in 2009, with the rest of their cost subject to normal depreciation rules.
Retirement plans. If you own a business and set up a qualified retirement plan for it by year-end 2009, you have until the extended due date of the business’s tax return to make a contribution to it — as late as October 15, 2010.
Bottom Line/Personal interviewed Sidney Kess, Esq., JD, CPA, 10 Rockefeller Plaza, New York City 10020. He is coauthor/consulting editor of Financial and Estate Planning and coauthor of 1040 Preparation and Planning Guide 2009. (CCH). Over the years, he has taught tax law to more than 700,000 tax professionals.
April 7th, 2010 at 1:57 am
Scammers have found a clever way of ripping off auto owners in
the recent Toyota recall.
By simply changing one digit in the official helpline number,
they lure victims into paying premium rate charges and even
risking identity theft.
A scam based on the Toyota recall of autos for gas pedal and
floor mat problems heads up this week’s Snippets issue. It
shows just how quickly crooks latch on to a news event as a
way of conning the public.
They used a simple but sneaky trick — sending out spaham
(intentionally misspelled) emails, some of which land in the
inboxes of Toyota owners.
The messages simply invite recipients to call a 1-800 number
for more details about the Toyota recall models and what
action they need to take.
The number is virtually identical to a real helpline set up
for owners on the Toyota recall list — just one digit is
changed.
So far, no problem, you might think, since 1-800 calls are
free. But what happens next has already cost some victims
around $6 a minute.
They’re connected either to a recorded message or a real
person, asking them to hold. Then they’re told all lines to
service reps dealing with the Toyota recalls are busy but that
they can get through by calling another number.
The message does state that there’s a $5.96 per minute premium
rate for the new call but it is said so quickly, it would be
easy to miss it. But that’s enough to keep the scam strictly
within the law!
However, some victims reported that when they got through on
the premium line, they were asked for personal information
including Social Security numbers, which, of course, has
nothing whatsoever to do with the Toyota recall.
It was potentially a prelude to identity theft.
If you want to know if and how you might be affected by the
Toyota pedal recall or any other recall issues, you can call
the official helpline, which is 1-800-331-4331, or speak to
your Toyota dealer.
This Toyota recall scam sounds like another more general
warning for us all too: Any phone number with a 1-900 prefix
is a premium rate service that you’re going to pay heavily
for.
This is not something anyone who’s supposed to be putting
things right for you is ever likely to ask you to do!
Some regular-looking numbers — those beginning with 809
(which is used in the Caribbean) — may also levy a premium
rate. You can read more about the 809 scam in this Scambusters
issue.
http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=8JUKO&m=1c806iL6i0tWfo&b=wJjYQ38b4wm0bg6wRmcq1w