Grapefuit...Did you know

[RhondaH]

In my panic of high liver enzymes I came across the below:

breastcancer.org Info
Grapefruit juice and medication

• Certain components in grapefruit decrease the level of a particular enzyme that helps clear medications from the body
• This interaction causes unpredictable changes in the amount of medication that your body can absorb
• Medicine that accumulates in the body may cause an increase in side effects
• Do not eat grapefruit or drink the juice while on tamoxifen, since grapefruit can interfere with absorption

I follow the Diane Dyer BC Diet religiously and eat 1/2 a grapefruit each morning (going to stop this as I eat a tomato and orange each day to supplement). I also found that most clinical trials tell you not to drink grapefuit juice if doing the trial. Do any of you know of any other foods or drugs that can alter the effects of chemo or Herceptin (I am currently on 1 year of Herceptin alone and want to do what ever I can to get maximum benefit). I am also going to talk to my doc about either stopping my phenobarbital or switching to something else. Thank you.

Rhonda Hoffman

[CLTann]

It is well known in the medical group that grapefruit interferes with drug functions in many situation. Also, soy products, containing phytoestrogen, may interfere (or may not, since it is a vegetable derived entity) with many drugs that aim for estrogen positive cancer cells.