Grapefruit and Hypertension? -

Is there really a colleration/side effect in drinking fresh grapefruit juice and taking hypertension medication like Diovan?

You must avoid grapefruit juice when taking all statin drugs, this is true. But, Diovan is an Angiotensin II receptor blocker and Antihypertensive and there is no food drug interaction with these.

Dietary Considerations for Diovan - Avoid salt substitutes which contain potassium. May be taken with or without food. You can drink as much grapefruit juice as you want. You can t have grapefruit juice if you are on a statin agent to lower your cholesterol. Grapefruit juice may inhibit metabolism of the statin drugs via the enzyme CYP3A4. The statin will stay in your body longer, rising to harmful levels.

I have never heard of that with Diovan but statin drugs for high cholesterol are not to be taken with grapefruit. It should be on the label if that is a fact. But, I never heard of it.

Eating grapefruit or drinking the juice can greatly raise the level of many medications in your blood, especially including hypertension medications. That is why it is very important to avoid grapefruit when taking those medications. I wanted to add that other citrus fruits are just fine. They don t have grapefruit s effects. And doctors don t really know why grapefruit does that.