You’ve probably heard the news. It’s been on television and it’s making the rounds on Facebook and Twitter. The title of the ABC News story is, “Grapefruit, Medicine Interaction Warning“. Before going further, allow me to state that this is not really news. Sure, the number of drugs involved is larger, but we have known for decades that grapefruit juice interacts with drug actions.

The interactions vary – sometimes enhancing the drug’s action and sometimes blocking it. Chances are that other foods interact with drugs, but nothing is as well studied as the grapefruit connection.

On the one hand, we may be inclined to make grapefruit out as the bad guy in this report. After all, everyone seems to be taking handfuls of drugs on a regular basis. Our motto has long been, “Too Many People Take Too Many Drugs”, so you know my position on the “problem” with interactions.

This leads me to a conclusion that isn’t in line with the standard medical advice. Where current practice suggests avoiding grapefruit and its juice, I suggest looking carefully at the drugs involved – and stop taking them. Of course, this needs the approval of the prescribing doctor, but you can make a strong case for yourself. Why would you want to take a drug that is so powerful that its actions can be altered by a simple fruit – one that we’ve all been consuming “forever”. The problem is the drugs NOT THE GRAPEFRUIT.

Click here to see the long list of drugs – and be aware that is NOT an all-inclusive list. Other drugs will be added to those 50. Count on it.

We need to shift our attention away from the standard of medicine in America – away from drugs, surgery, and radiation – towards lifestyles that encourage and promote health and healing. Thinking back 50 years (only possible for the geezers out here) I have witnessed a distinct change in how we obtain healing and stay healthy.

In the past, we visited a doctor when something went wrong – we had a cut, a broken bone, a lump, a relentless pain, a high fever, and so on. Health professionals helped us get better and stay that way. Sometimes we used drugs, but rarely did we depend on a daily dose of one for the rest of our lives.

Today, we seem to visit a doctor according to a schedule, even when we are feeling fine. The medical system tests us and often finds that we aren’t really as healthy as we think. In fact, we are so unhealthy that we need to get involved in a system of testing, doctor visits, and drug use that changes us forever. We find that we HAVE something – a diagnosis – and that it must be treated even when the treatment options make us feel bad or make it so we need other treatments or drugs to resolve the symptoms.

There is poison in every pill and when we take one or more every day, the chance that those poisons will harm us irreparably increases. Statin drugs are a prime example. They are rarely necessary and they commonly cause side effects that require other drugs to manage. In the worst cases, the statins can damage our muscles, bones, joints, and even useful organs. There are numerous reports about how statins can harm the gallbladder and pancreas – and the harm is difficult or impossible to reverse. Ask yourself if having high cholesterol (whatever that means) is worse than pancreatitis, pancreatic cancer, or death. There’s more on this issue, but I’ll leave it for now.

I conclude that the problem between grapefruit and drugs is real. I also conclude that it is probably more prudent to remove the drugs than the fruit. As they say on TV all the time, “Ask your doctor if grapefruit is right for you.”