Grapefruit, Pomegranate Juice Not a Good Mix With Statins

April 23, 2009— -- Recently, I talked about a study on "Good Morning America" showing that although statins effectively reduce low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, they also appear to reduce patients' levels of energy and activity. I discussed five ways to deal with the problem of low energy or fatigue while on statins.

The response was tremendous, and I have learned what my own patients have been telling me for some time -- not all people tolerate statins without side effects. Complaints of memory problems, fatigue, low energy and muscle weakness were fairly common -- although with more than 13 million users, it is hard to know how many people suffer overall.

Yet, giving people the heads-up that side effects can occur while on statins is important. I believe many patients are led to think they are crazy when their doctors tell them that the symptoms aren't likely from statins, or the doctors wrongly attribute the symptoms to something else rather than try to stop the statins, lower the dose or switch to another brand.

So many doctors believe the statin drugs are so safe and effective that the "joke," or discussion, in the medical community is that perhaps most healthy adults would benefit from a low dose of statins just to prevent heart disease.

"Perhaps we should put statins in the drinking water," a few will suggest.

Back to the reason for this piece!! In the segment, I included the suggestion to try juices high in antioxidants such as pomegranate juice, a recommendation learned from my patients over the years. However, I also noted on the show that grapefruit juice should be avoided as it could interfere with metabolism of the statin medication and raise the drug level and potential side effects even more.

An astute viewer alerted me that there is a similar interaction of pomegranate juice with statins and that pomegranate juice should also be avoided. I did a little homework and found that a study performed on rats (which means we don't know if the effect will be the same in humans) in Japan and published in 2005 did find that pomegranate juice, like grapefruit juice, could potentially interfere with the metabolism of certain medications.