12.31.2013

Amiodarone and Grapefruit

I know Miss K has not been on Amiodarone for over a year but recently the use of Grapefruit while taking Amiodarone was brought up on our Living with PJRT facebook group and it brought me to researching it a bit.  I remembered when Miss K was on Amiodarone that our EP Cardiologist told us not to give her Grapefruit or any products of Grapefruit while she was taking it, I just listened to him and never gave it to her but I didn't ever look into the reasons why.  Below you will find the smallest bit of research I was able to do on the subject, I only hope it is helpful to someone :).

In light of recent confusion about Amiodarone and Grapefruit I have be researching it hoping to help those of you who are still giving your babies Amiodarone :).  All in all everything I found was full of words and talk that anyone without a medical degree could never fully understand lol, but I did find one, just one, very dummied down explanation about ingesting Grapefruit or any product of Grapefruit while taking Amiodarone.  Here it is, I hope it helps your understanding!

Grapefruit juice appears to completely inhibit the metabolism of amiodarone to its major active metabolite, increases the AUC of amiodarone by 50% and increases the peak serum level by 84%, which may lead to toxicity. However, the effect of amiodarone on the PR and QTc intervals is apparently decreased, possibly due to reduced levels of the active metabolite.
Further study is needed. In the meantime, it may be prudent to suggest to patients that they avoid grapefruit juice.
http://www.medpill.info/amiodarone-and-grapefruit-juice-10176.htm

The studies I read said that in males it harms the testicles and in all patients, male and female, it can harm the urinary tracts and kidneys and the Grapefruit lessens the Amiodarone's effectiveness.

I hate the internet, research can be quite tough for me here lol, if anyone can find anything to read about this that is less confusing than what I found please feel free to share it in the comments here with a link to the site you found it on :).