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This and That and Talk - My Transplant
Transplants | Last Active: Aug 14 9:57pm | Replies (1677)Comment receiving replies
Grapefruit juice and/ or grapefruits, should not be consumed, as they throw off the Tac. levels......I never herd anything about pomegranates. There is a shortage of the Tacrolimus, I had to switch, how many years out are you nMedicare should cover the immunosuppressants, for 3yrs., until they change the legislation.
Replies to "Grapefruit juice and/ or grapefruits, should not be consumed, as they throw off the Tac. levels......I..."
This is a very interesting discussion for me. I was told absolutely no grapefruit in any form but pomegranate was not mentioned. When my tacrolimus levels suddenly spiked, there was no obvious cause until I remembered that I had been drinking pomegranate juice. I researched this and found that some doctors in North America ( I recall Minneapolis and Nebraska universities) had found evidence of the this link. My tacrolimus went back down when I stopped the pomegranate juice
My doctors were really interested and asked me to submit a Yellow Card to NICE ( our equivalent of your FDA) which means that they will conduct further studies to see if it should be listed as a known drug reaction.
Needless to say, I never drink or eat pomegranate or grapefruit.
There is no shortage of tacrolimus here as far as I am aware. Prograf is the make of choice certainly in Edinburgh and I am not allowed to take any other brand of tacrolimus. I hope this helps.
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Eek, I did not know about the shortage of Tacrolimus or that Medicare only covers immunosuppressants for 3 years. We have a Medicare Advantage plan. Hoping that helps.