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Grapefruit juice boosts chemotherapy effectiveness
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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The University of Chicago has found that drinking grapefruit juice can increase the effectiveness of chemotherapy drugs while reducing the dosage. This juice has a special feature: it increases the concentration of drugs.
Dr. Ezra Cohen tested the juice on the anti-cancer drug Sirolimus. 138 people with incurable cancer volunteered. As the experiment showed, the juice really did increase the concentration of the drug with minimal side effects.
Grapefruit juice is known to inhibit enzymes that break down drugs, including Sirolimus, calcium channel blockers and statins. This allowed the progression of the disease to be slowed in volunteers for the duration of the experiment.
The scientists also found that different types of juice varied in effectiveness depending on the concentration of the active ingredient, furanocoumarin. The juice is non-toxic and there is no risk of overdose, making it an excellent candidate for a therapeutic agent.
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