Healthy Juices and Prescription Drug Interactions

Healthful juices, high in antioxidants and nutrition, include Mangosteen, Himilayan Goji, Polynesian Noni, Acai and Pomegranate Juice.

Are antioxidant juices completely safe for anyone to drink or do prescription drug interactions need to be investigated?

Not represented as a complete list of all possible drug interactions. Check with your doctor if under a doctor's care

more on prescription drug safety

Antioxidant Juices and Drug Interactions

© 2008, Neva J Howell, All Rights Reserved
Wellness Information Homepage ~*~ Search for More on Antioxidants

Back in the early 90's, when I started as a wellness coach and spiritual healing facilitator, things were simpler. I didn't really concern myself too much with drug interactions because you just didn't hear about them like you do now.

Now, and especially with all the new drugs that are coming out and that have their own unresearched problems that so often result in them being pulled back off the market due to deaths or unexpected results, it has become virtually impossible for me to ever say that a natural supplement, or even a food, is safe for everyone.

In fact, I say the opposite. In this day and time, when most the people I know who have heart disease are on about a dozen different medications, and a lot of those medications are the "new kid on the block" for that application, I just simply won't suggest anything any more. I can provide educational information but if you have decided that the prescription drug route is the best option for your healing, then I'd advise just sticking to that.

Getting Juiced

The big nutritional thing today is antioxidant-rich juices including Goji, Mangosteen, Acai, Pomegrante and Noni. On the surface, what is not to like? They are all rich in nutrition, most containing fiber, vitamins, and high antioxidant values. For many, they provide helpful benefits including more energy and less pain.

Yet, even these health-promoting juices are not absolutely health for absolutely everyone. It's important to know the nutritional properties of each and to also understand how any prescription drugs you are taking may react to or interact with each juice.

It can be challenging to rule out drug interactions from antioxidant juices and what makes it harder still is that almost all the juices being sold and promoted also contained other juices, vitamins, minerals or herbs. This complicates things when you are trying to determine potential drug interactions or side effects because you must then look at each added ingredient separately.

Controlling vs Healing

In my view, prescription drugs are aimed at controlling symptoms instead of healing. Blood pressure medications control blood pressure levels but they don't heal a condition, which is evidenced by the blood pressure going back up if a person goes off the medication.

The body is designed to naturally strive toward normal function and balance when illness presents. Prescription drugs aimed at controlling symptoms conflict with the natural tendency of the body to balance itself and a false balance is created that eventually effects other systems.

Longterm use of most prescription medications contains the real potential of creating or contributing to other health conditions. Again, using blood pressure meds as an example, the longterm effect can be respiratory failure. With statin drugs, the false control of cholesterol levels can end up with the longterm effect of liver damage. Other prescription drugs affect the kidneys, stomach, adrenals, or lower the body's natural ability to fight infection. This is why you hear all those warnings on prescription drug commercials saying that you need to tell your doctor if you have ever had liver or kidney problems or if you are prone to infection.

In addition to the concerns inherent in mixing natural remedies and prescription drugs that are aimed toward similar goals, the one to control a condition and the other to help the body naturally reverse it and restore balance, we also have to consider the fact that as much as 60 percent of doctors may be prescribing higher than recommended dosages or prescribing drugs not originally indicated for a certain condition, a practice called off-label prescribing

Natural Remedies / Prescription Drug Conflict

Since natural health remedies are aimed at helping the body heal so that it can maintain it's own true levels of healthy blood pressure, cholesterol levels, etc., they will work in that way regardless of the false levels set and maintained by prescription drugs.

As these natural substances attempt to work with your body to restore normal function that is not dependant on the regulating presence of drugs, problems very often can result.

The way these two approaches work with the body, one to control symptoms and the other to provide nutritional support so the body can correct itself naturally, is so different as to be very often conflicting.

Here's just a very few examples of potential prescription drug interactions that can occur with the use of healthy and otherwise harmless nutrionals:

Noni Juice Drug Interactions
Acai Juice Drug Interactions
Mangosteen Juice Drug Interactions
Goji Juice Drug Interactions
Pomegrante Juice Drug Interactions


Health Care Disclaimer: Pregnant women and nursing mothers are always advised to consult with their doctors on any nutritional changes they want to make and before taking anything, whether natural or prescription.....I mean, ALWAYS. Regardless of how safe a product is, there is just almost no one who will say it's safe for a pregnant or nursing woman so check with your doctor, period. Those with diabetes should always consider sugar content in any juice, whether these I've researched or other.