Vanderbilt Doctors Find Citrus Soda Interacts With Cyclosporine, Maybe Statins

Bill Turner, 35, never knew that drinking a popular beverage could send his recovery from a double-lung transplant on a mysterious roller coaster ride. It took a team of medical sleuths at Vanderbilt University Medical Center to discover that the wild up-and-down swings in levels of the anti-rejection drug cyclosporine were fueled by the Sun Drop soft drink Turner drank to quench his caffeine cravings. Solving the case identified a new food-and-drug interaction that could be harmful for all transplant patients, and, possibly, people taking a class of anti-cholesterol drugs called statins.

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