system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why are so many medications dangerous when taken with alcohol?
gpt
Actually, the reason certain medications are dangerous when taken with alcohol, is because they are metabolized by the same first pass enzyme in the liver - CYP2E1.  Now depending on how much of this enzyme is available, your body may become overloaded by both the drug and the alcohol, leading to adverse effects.   Same goes for other compounds. For example, you can't take statins (cholesterol lowering drugs) with grapefruit juice, because they are metabolized by same enzyme in the liver - CYP2D6.  This all comes down to the amount of readily available enzyme, needed to metabolize the drug.