what supplements and foods interfere with tamoxifen?

I've been told that grapefruit interferes with tamoxifen's action.

I've been looking into this for my wife, and I couldn't find many food interactions.  I'll keep following this thread to see what others say.  The one I did find, sounded incredibly obscure, something like tangerine peel extract.

 However, before taking any prescription or over the counter drug, check for known interactions.  There are many drugs on the list that may interfere with tamoxifen.

Yep Grapefruit, and Benadryl!  Inspiewriter, I forgot about the benadryl!

My naturopath recommended to just avoid oranges and tangerines as well.  Although, lemons should be okay.

I have also had no problemos so far with tamoxifen.

Good luck! 

I am an intermediate metabolizer of tamoxifen, so I to be especially careful to make this drug work for me.

 I am avoiding all soy products, flax, citrus peel (the juice is fine), anise, licorice, hops (beer), revestrol (?sp) (chocolate in great moderation) (red wine - in fact, I was told 1 alcoholic drink/day increases the risk of breast cancer by 10%), grapefruit, pomogranate seeds (in juice?), tumeric (very much interfers with tamoxifen so I go easy on curries),....   

Question:  Do these food also interfere with arimidex?  How did you find out this information?

http://www.drugs.com/interactions/grapefruit-with-tamoxifen-2624-0-2145-0.html

http://www.drugs.com/drug-interactions/arimidex-with-grapefruit-2624-0-206-94.html

Ladies maybe this will help you with some of your questions.

Sheila

Your pharmacist is your best resource for this question.  Mine has been wonderful.

I recently started taking tumeric. this is with blessing of my NO. Sometimes I think he really doesn't pay attention. He put me on resverterol until I found that it wasn't for hormone positive people..

but does anyone have any links to validate the tumeric/tamoxifen thing. I can't seem to find much of anything 

I also take turmeric with the tamoxifen and it was highly recommended by the naturopath and integrative oncologist. So maybe it is special for the "intermediate metabolized"??



I trust my docs and respect the Block center too so once again each of us are unique and we need guidance from those we trust.

The Block Center just posted this today on Facebook:

 Curcumin is the primary component of the Indian spice turmeric, and is responsible for the bright yellow color of this popular spice. There is a significant amount of research demonstrating curcumin's anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties and, in fact, several laboratory studies have found that this botanical enhances the effectiveness of chemotherapy drugs in treating various types of tumors. What's really remarkable is that most of the interactions are synergistic, meaning that curcumin actually multiplies the effectiveness of several chemotherapy drugs. This has caused some to wonder if there is also the potential for negative interactions, and whether curcumin could perhaps inhibit the effectiveness of other chemotherapy drugs. Some of this concern has centered around tamoxifen. Specifically, whether curcumin could inhibit tamoxifen's activity.

It has been noted in a lab study that curcumin can inhibit an enzyme in the body (called cytochrome p450 2D6), one of the enzymes that is involved in activation of tamoxifen. Some antidepressant drugs also inhibit the same enzyme, and they can decrease the amount of activated tamoxifen in the bloodstream. However, the lab study of curcumin found that there was actually only a very minor inhibition of this enzyme. Curcumin had a stronger inhibition on some other related cytochrome p450 enzymes in that lab study, for instance 3a4, the enzyme involved in St John's Wort interactions. In the case of curcumin and tamoxifen, this could have resulted in an increase in the level of tamoxifen in the blood. And in fact, when curcumin was given along with tamoxifen to rats, the tamoxifen levels in the blood increased. However, when this 3a4 interaction was tested in humans, it was of no clinical or statistical significance. Furthermore, other lab studies have shown curcumin to inhibit tamoxifen-induced liver injury, to increase the toxicity of tamoxifen towards leukemia cells while protecting red blood cells, and to sensitize breast cancer cells to tamoxifen treatment. It is thus extremely unlikely that curcumin could have been inhibiting the activity of tamoxifen in this patient.

I just completed my 5th round of chemo (switched to Taxol).

I read a lot about curcumin, but I'm not sure when to start...

Is it better to wait until chemo and rads are over? My med onc and rad onc told me not to take anything at all during active treatment. And both doctors are researches and have an excellent ratings. What should I believe?

Anybody on Metmorfin trial? What SE do you have? Does anyone know what are the risks for women with normal sugar levels taking it? My med onc mentioned that she wants to offer taking a part in Metmorfin trial and we will discuss it after chemo.

Does anyone have any experience with this drug?

Your best source of information about possible contraindications for tamoxifen is your pharmacist.  Mine has been wonderful.  There are a great many drugs, both prescription and over-the-counter, and supplements that can interfere - with varying degrees  -with tamoxifen and your pharmacist is the best person to help you sort it all out.

Here's an interesting journal article about zinc and its positive effect when taken with tamoxifen. I only read the abstract, but that's pretty detailed.

https://circle.ubc.ca/handle/2429/14240

And one  curcumin and tamoxifen ("Studies have shown that curcumin, a polyphenol derived from the rhizome of the perennial herb Curcuma longa, is able to inhibit the activation of NF-kB, which is implicated as one mechanism by which breast cancer cells become resistant to tamoxifen treatment.")

http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/69/24_MeetingAbstracts/3098

Claire in AZ