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- Worcester UK
Mostly I just read here--the quality of the interaction is SO good in this forum. There isn't a lot of me to spare for adding to the discussion. But I am still going through materials I wrote as sysop for a now-defunct forum and have published updated versions of two that I hope will be helpful. I figure they belong together.
The first explains how brand-name drugs can differ from the generics that are supposed to be equivalent to them. This is not just from reading files. I have done consulting work for two of the major pharmaceutical companies, one in the USA and one in the UK.
Doctors may tell you that generics are the same as the more expensive brand name drugs, but that is not always true. People who need thyroid supplements (such as my mother) can tell you that even switching between brand-name pills throws their thyroid hormone levels out of kilter. Since we are often extra sensitive to meds or have odd responses to them, being put on a generic version of other meds doesn't always turn out well for us.
The second is from searching Medscape. I couldn't find a simple list of medications that interact with grapefruit (and its components such as juice), so I pulled together a list and published it. Years ago, I was sick for months because my morning grapefruit juice was cancelling out most of a medication I was taking and I didn't realize it. I hope this will help someone else avoid the same problem, or avoid a trip to the emergency room because of an inadvertent overdose.
The pages where you can find these are:
http://www.squidoo.com/brand-name-drugs-vs-generics
http://www.squidoo.com/grapefruit-interactions-with-drugs
The first explains how brand-name drugs can differ from the generics that are supposed to be equivalent to them. This is not just from reading files. I have done consulting work for two of the major pharmaceutical companies, one in the USA and one in the UK.
Doctors may tell you that generics are the same as the more expensive brand name drugs, but that is not always true. People who need thyroid supplements (such as my mother) can tell you that even switching between brand-name pills throws their thyroid hormone levels out of kilter. Since we are often extra sensitive to meds or have odd responses to them, being put on a generic version of other meds doesn't always turn out well for us.
The second is from searching Medscape. I couldn't find a simple list of medications that interact with grapefruit (and its components such as juice), so I pulled together a list and published it. Years ago, I was sick for months because my morning grapefruit juice was cancelling out most of a medication I was taking and I didn't realize it. I hope this will help someone else avoid the same problem, or avoid a trip to the emergency room because of an inadvertent overdose.
The pages where you can find these are:
http://www.squidoo.com/brand-name-drugs-vs-generics
http://www.squidoo.com/grapefruit-interactions-with-drugs