So whats the deal with this grapefruit juice i have seen it in many post.... what exactly does it do for you when u are on opitates and does it really work and if so how any why??:cheers2:
Many times on prescription drugs you will see the warning "do not drink grapefruit juice". There isn't a lot of studies on this but it seems like the grapefruit juice inhibits the cytochrome P450 enzymes in your body which play a big part in drug metabolism, not just opiates either. The compounds in grapefruit juice that do this would be bergamottin and dihydroxybergamottin. The inhibition of these enzymes decreases the effectiveness of your body breaking down the drug and therefore increases the bioavailability of the drug. It's actually a little bit dangerous IMHO because you can't really be sure how much you're increasing the bioavailability so be judicious with your dosages. Like I said, this would work on a number of different drugs not just opiates (so long as you INGEST them.) Works on MDMA, for example.
By the way, there are every day things that induce the performance of these class of enzymes rather than inhibit them. That is to say it makes the enzyme more effective and REDUCES the bioavailability of these certain drugs. Big ones are St. John's wort and to a small extent tobacco.
