You Read It On The Internet, So Does It Have To Be True?

Doctors and medication seem to be a hot topic among people my age, and some friends and I were recently talking about the drug Simvastatin, the generic form of Zocor. It's a cholesterol lowering and triglyceride lowering drug, with the added benefit of helping to reduce heart attacks and strokes. It does come with some side effects, although in most people these are minimal. Muscle cramping and leg pain is one major side effect. I've been taking 10mg of simvastatin for years now, and I've always taken it at night. Silly me. I should have read the directions. My friends told me, and my prescription bottle confirmed, that this drug should be taken at night. The reason is that in blind studies they have found that the drug works more effectively at night. So, as of today, I now take simvastatin at night. I love grapefruit juice, and had always been told not to drink grapefruit juice or eat grapefruit while on the drug. I guess that means no grapefruit juice for the rest of my life, for this is a drug you probably take, at some level, for the rest of your life. So I decided to dig a little deeper. Yes, grapefruit juice does interact with simvastatin, and you should not take more than an 8 ounce glass. (an only occasionally). This was confirmed by several reliable medical sites, including John Hopkins. Then I ran across a medical website that said that grapefruit could interact with simvastatin, so do not drink more than one quart a day! Wow, people will read that and drink grapefruit juice liberally. Quite a mistake, and the article was posted 2 years ago, and no one has told them they are misinforming the public. Be sure to double check information you acquire on the internet. Many posts are by bloggers that have their own perspective, or have not done their homework. Just because you read it on the internet, doesn't mean it's true.