4 ms·

This killed my friend's dad. He was on a bunch of heart drugs and had a pacemaker and everything, but was generally stable. One day, grapefruit comes up in conv

This killed my friend's dad. He was on a bunch of heart drugs and had a pacemaker and everything, but was generally stable. One day, grapefruit comes up in conversation with his doctor, who sternly advises him "never eat grapefruit, it'll mess with your meds!", so he stops eating the grapefruit he'd been having for breakfast every morning for years. Which promptly hoses up the finely-adjusted dosages, his symptoms suddenly get real weird, the situation spirals out of control, and he's dead in 4 days. Doctors, please don't rush out of the room. Take time to talk to your patients, and take twice as much time to listen to them. I'm sure he would've mentioned that detail if he'd had time to find the English words.

corey_moncure 7y ago
Doctors want you in and out of the room in 5 minutes or less so they can pull the insurance money dispensing lever again. The last physician I had any respect for was my own pediatrician and I had consulted him on various issues having gone through several GPs that got even simple diagnoses disastrously, hilariously wrong. Such as telling me the tiny red lump in my finger was an anthrax infection and notifying the health department when it was really a small benign vascularity that was removed in a fifteen minute procedure. Since my pediatrician retired I just do all my own medical research and order my own lab tests. The advantage I have is that I have all the insight into my own body, history, and habits that no doctor these days ever takes the time to find out. You're just a money pinata. Thank you, here are some antibiotics for an unspecified pathogen I didn't culture, Alisha will see you at checkout. Examining the patient? Ain't nobody got time for that.
- ohazi 7y ago
  How do you order a lab test on your own?
  - Judgmentality 7y ago
    In the US there are surprisingly few barriers to this, an extreme rarity in our healthcare system. https://questdirect.questdiagnostics.com/ https://questdirect.questdiagnostics.com/ https://www.walkinlab.com/ https://www.walkinlab.com/ https://requestatest.com/how-it-works https://requestatest.com/how-it-works https://www.healthonelabs.com/ https://www.healthonelabs.com/ https://www.directlabs.com/ https://www.directlabs.com/ I have no affiliation with any of the above, they were just the first to pop up on Google (there are plenty more).
  - tim58 7y ago
    Find a local lab, ask about submitting a lab, collect then deliver samples. There isn't anything special that says a blood test has to be requested by a doctor. A lab is rarely going to advertise to consumers directly (some startups do this with mail in tests), but a smaller one will be happy for the bit of extra business.
    - chrismeller 7y ago
      Not necessarily true. In many states if a doctor does not request it your insurance has no obligation to pay. That doesn’t mean you can’t get it done, but you’ll be spending hundreds of dollars out of pocket for it. Also, everywhere I’ve ever lived labs have been a very commercial business. They advertise constantly about it...
lonelappde 7y ago
That's a malpractice case. The doctor gave advice that he knew was potentially fatal.
2rsf 7y ago
> Take time to talk to your patients I agree that most doctors rush things (for whatever reason). But what does it have to do with this case ? the advice was solid- stop eating grapefruit.
- loceng 7y ago
  Did you read the full comment you're replying to? The person who died was told this exact advice - stop eating grapefruit, and that lead to them dying in 4 days.
  - 2rsf 7y ago
    I did, and according to theory he should have gotten better after stopping eating grapefruits- how could a longer talk with a doctor help in this case ?
    - chrismeller 7y ago
      They had spent what I’m sure is many visits finely honing the dosages of his various medications. The efficacy of those medications combined with grapefruit was different than it would have been without grapefruit. Suddenly stopping grapefruit caused a drastic shift in the levels of those medications in his system and caused catastrophic problems. In short: it works both ways. Grapefruit screws with levels. If your levels are tuned to a non-grapefruit diet you shouldn’t start eating it. If they are tuned to a grapefruit diet you shouldn’t stop eating it. Either way his doctor should have spoken to him when he started the drugs and discussed the grapefruit factor, and absolutely should have been mindful of whether or not his patient had been eating grapefruit all along when telling him to stop eating it. It’s the same as being on another medication, he shouldn’t have discontinued it immediately, he should have tapered off.
    - phibz 7y ago
      Sounds like the guy was over medicated, but eating grapefruit daily. As far as I understand it, grapefruit binds to the drugs, reducing the level of available drug in your blood. So when he stopped eating grapefruit his levels spiked. Its unfortunate but when his doctor said "hey don't eat grapefruit it'll screw with your levels." The guy _really_ _really_ should have said, "oh yeah doc I've been eating grapefruit every morning for breakfast," which would have started a much larger conversation. My personal experience as someone on a lot of blood pressure medication has been that all my doctors have been very clear and up front with me about not eating grapefruit while on that kind of medication. When I asked why they were happy to explain the interactions. And it's not just blood pressure medication. The same type effect happened with my other meds too.

corey_moncure 7y ago

Doctors want you in and out of the room in 5 minutes or less so they can pull the insurance money dispensing lever again. The last physician I had any respect for was my own pediatrician and I had consulted him on various issues having gone through several GPs that got even simple diagnoses disastrously, hilariously wrong. Such as telling me the tiny red lump in my finger was an anthrax infection and notifying the health department when it was really a small benign vascularity that was removed in a fifteen minute procedure. Since my pediatrician retired I just do all my own medical research and order my own lab tests. The advantage I have is that I have all the insight into my own body, history, and habits that no doctor these days ever takes the time to find out. You're just a money pinata. Thank you, here are some antibiotics for an unspecified pathogen I didn't culture, Alisha will see you at checkout. Examining the patient? Ain't nobody got time for that.

ohazi 7y ago
How do you order a lab test on your own?
- Judgmentality 7y ago
  In the US there are surprisingly few barriers to this, an extreme rarity in our healthcare system. https://questdirect.questdiagnostics.com/ https://questdirect.questdiagnostics.com/ https://www.walkinlab.com/ https://www.walkinlab.com/ https://requestatest.com/how-it-works https://requestatest.com/how-it-works https://www.healthonelabs.com/ https://www.healthonelabs.com/ https://www.directlabs.com/ https://www.directlabs.com/ I have no affiliation with any of the above, they were just the first to pop up on Google (there are plenty more).
- tim58 7y ago
  Find a local lab, ask about submitting a lab, collect then deliver samples. There isn't anything special that says a blood test has to be requested by a doctor. A lab is rarely going to advertise to consumers directly (some startups do this with mail in tests), but a smaller one will be happy for the bit of extra business.
  - chrismeller 7y ago
    Not necessarily true. In many states if a doctor does not request it your insurance has no obligation to pay. That doesn’t mean you can’t get it done, but you’ll be spending hundreds of dollars out of pocket for it. Also, everywhere I’ve ever lived labs have been a very commercial business. They advertise constantly about it...

lonelappde 7y ago

That's a malpractice case. The doctor gave advice that he knew was potentially fatal.

2rsf 7y ago

> Take time to talk to your patients I agree that most doctors rush things (for whatever reason). But what does it have to do with this case ? the advice was solid- stop eating grapefruit.

loceng 7y ago
Did you read the full comment you're replying to? The person who died was told this exact advice - stop eating grapefruit, and that lead to them dying in 4 days.
- 2rsf 7y ago
  I did, and according to theory he should have gotten better after stopping eating grapefruits- how could a longer talk with a doctor help in this case ?
  - chrismeller 7y ago
    They had spent what I’m sure is many visits finely honing the dosages of his various medications. The efficacy of those medications combined with grapefruit was different than it would have been without grapefruit. Suddenly stopping grapefruit caused a drastic shift in the levels of those medications in his system and caused catastrophic problems. In short: it works both ways. Grapefruit screws with levels. If your levels are tuned to a non-grapefruit diet you shouldn’t start eating it. If they are tuned to a grapefruit diet you shouldn’t stop eating it. Either way his doctor should have spoken to him when he started the drugs and discussed the grapefruit factor, and absolutely should have been mindful of whether or not his patient had been eating grapefruit all along when telling him to stop eating it. It’s the same as being on another medication, he shouldn’t have discontinued it immediately, he should have tapered off.
  - phibz 7y ago
    Sounds like the guy was over medicated, but eating grapefruit daily. As far as I understand it, grapefruit binds to the drugs, reducing the level of available drug in your blood. So when he stopped eating grapefruit his levels spiked. Its unfortunate but when his doctor said "hey don't eat grapefruit it'll screw with your levels." The guy _really_ _really_ should have said, "oh yeah doc I've been eating grapefruit every morning for breakfast," which would have started a much larger conversation. My personal experience as someone on a lot of blood pressure medication has been that all my doctors have been very clear and up front with me about not eating grapefruit while on that kind of medication. When I asked why they were happy to explain the interactions. And it's not just blood pressure medication. The same type effect happened with my other meds too.