Adderall And Grapefruit (Top voted first)

I am currently on a generic version of Adderall to moderate my A.D.D. My doctor advised to avoid citrus fruits, like grapefruit, when taking my meds. She said that if i do eat citrus, make sure it is 2 hrs after i have taken the medicine. My question is, will my meds be affected if i've eaten grapefruit 4 hours after taking my morning dose and when i take my second dose in 2 hours? Also, is there an adverse reaction?

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This is a copy and paste from the manufacturer to substantiate my answer.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The drug's half-life is highly variable because the rate of excretion is very sensitive to urinary pH. Under alkaline conditions, direct excretion is negligible and 95%+ of the dose is metabolized. Having an alkaline stomach will cause the drug to be absorbed faster through the stomach resulting in a higher blood level concentration of amphetamine. Having an alkaline bladder causes amphetamines to be excreted more slowly from the blood and into the urine. Alkalinization of the urine can decrease the renal elimination of amphetamines, both potentiating the strength and prolonging the mechanism of action, especially when ingested with sodium bicarbonate.

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From what i understand is that grapefruit juice kills a protein called Cytochrome P450. This protein and grapefruit juice create (what we called it in med chem) a Suicide Substrate, meaning that the reaction is irreversible and inhibits anything that the protein normally functions as. This protein, Cytochrome P450, holds the main enzymes that oxidize the organic compounds that we intake (i unfortunately do not know how amphetamine reacts with the receptors that it binds to in order to deliver its effects to our body). If amphetamine does though i can see one of two things happening if you take it with grapefruit juice. 1) you will receive a more extreme effect of the amphetamine or 2) you will experience something that the amphetamine was not synthesized for and could possibly have negative effects on your body

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Hi Rosie,

There's a lot of mixed information online regarding whether or not grapefruit has a synergistic effect on Adderall's potency. Some users claim that they drop the pill in a glass of grapefruit juice for a more potent effect, however I do not encourage doing this, since I don't know how much more potent it can be.

When I check various food interactions with Adderall, grapefruit actually does not show up; which is surprising to me, due to all the claims and precautions people have been making on this topic.

If you're eating grapefruit 4 hours after your last dose, then "in my opinion" I would say that is fine and shouldn't have any adverse effect. If it was me in your shoes, I would definitely feel comfortable doing this with even a 2 hour window in between doses. In general, I would suggest just going off of how you feel after doing this, to better your judgement on when and how much should be eaten when you're on this medication.

I hope this helps!

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This is an old post but there's some misinformation in the comments. Grapefruit is a significant inhibitor of CYP2D6 (among others), which is also the metabolic pathway for Adderall. So while pH does impact the metabolism, it's more the PK/PD effects of trying to clear via the same mechanism. Studies involving other pharmaceuticals and grapefruit showed that it took 7 days between juice and med to have potency match that of controls, 3 days still showed a diminished effect and 1 day caused a 90% loss of potency of the drug. So I wouldn't go by the 4 hour rule and would avoid it. I wouldn't anticipate a "reaction" so much with a 4 hr gap as taking it together with the juice but there are multiple other factors. Dose, food in stomach, etc.

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All amphetamines, including dextoamphetamine and methamphetamine are effected by your PH levels of acid. Increasing the acidification in your stomach with acid filled or causes higher acid levels quicken the release of the drug output in your urine. Alkalizing such as the use of Baking Soda will decrease the levels of Amphetamines excreted in your urine. Also doing the same with the level in your blood of acidification or lack of it will do the same. This can be done by a few medicines (prescription medicines) Adderall is a mixture of amphetamine and dextroamphetamine salts and sulfates. Baking soda and water before and during the use can substantially increase levels in your body. The more alkalized, the lower acid PH levels and longer existence of Amphetamines in your body.

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No when I took my adderall with grapefruit juice it was like I did not even take it! I did get a jumpy feeling I have never had but my mind was so scattered!!!

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I drank my pill with grapefruit juice about 20 min ago (before reading or knowing anything about this topic) feels like my pill is putting me to sleep! Hence the reason I am now researching the topic.

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Re: David (# 1)

I know this is years later but for anyone else, once the drug passes into your GI tract the citrus juice should have no effect, especially if it is an extended acting version.

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Oh this is interesting I take Adderall IR and I have since 2005, often on, nobody has ever told me this and they probably should because I also use medical cannabis. CBD oil does the same thing to medication that grapefruit juice does, so if I shouldn’t use grapefruit juice and Adderall I should not use CBD and Adderall. Someone should have told me that since they all know I am a medical cannabis patient. Thank you for this post.

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I don’t know the answer to your question but I did wanted to pop on in here to tell people that if someone is taking meds they should not take with grapefruit, they should not take CBD oil either because it does the same thing that grapefruit does to those medications.

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Re: Jess (# 10)

This is the most clarifying explanation of what many are saying. It’s actually written in the pharmacology folded up papers that are glued to Vyvanse.

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