system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why do grapefruits and grapefruit juice interact so much with so many types of medications?
gpt
Grapefruit juice inhibits an enzyme (CYP3A4) that is very important in metabolizing many different medications. So when you drink it, the enzyme function is reduced, and less drug gets metabolized (and so it stays in the body longer than normally, which leads to it accumulating) and can result in toxicity of the drug. Hope that helps!