Bergamot and medication interactions

[Mroe]

Hi, snusers,

I'm fairly new to snusing (about 3 months in) but I joined this forum upon discovering some information that may be relevant to many of you here. You know how grapefruit interacts with pretty much every medication on the planet? Bergamot does, too. http://www.crazymeds.us/Grapefruit-DrugInteractions.pdf here is a list, by no means is it exhaustive, but it has some fairly common medications on it. (Yes, it's from a site geared toward psychiatric and neurologic conditions... It was the most concise list I could locate.)

I'd recommend Googling "yourdrugnamehere grapefruit" or "yourdrugnamehere furanocoumarin" (the quotes probably aren't necessary here) or, of course, discussing this with your doctor or pharmacist if you have any concerns.

[chadizzy1]

Hi, snusers,

I'm fairly new to snusing (about 3 months in) but I joined this forum upon discovering some information that may be relevant to many of you here. You know how grapefruit interacts with pretty much every medication on the planet? Bergamot does, too. http://www.crazymeds.us/Grapefruit-DrugInteractions.pdf here is a list, by no means is it exhaustive, but it has some fairly common medications on it. (Yes, it's from a site geared toward psychiatric and neurologic conditions... It was the most concise list I could locate.)

I'd recommend Googling "yourdrugnamehere grapefruit" or "yourdrugnamehere furanocoumarin" (the quotes probably aren't necessary here) or, of course, discussing this with your doctor or pharmacist if you have any concerns.

The amount of bergamot oil used in snus is so small that this won't be an issue.

[Mroe]

Source, please.

[chadizzy1]

Source, please.

Common sense. I've seen snus production first hand, I've seen how little flavor additive is needed to flavor snus, and with amounts that small, any reaction between bergamot and medication would be very, very, very rare, virtually a 0.01% chance of anything reacting negatively.

[Mroe]

Common sense. I've seen snus production first hand, I've seen how little flavor additive is needed to flavor snus, and with amounts that small, any reaction between bergamot and medication would be very, very, very rare, virtually a 0.01% chance of anything reacting negatively.

From wiki:

One hundred bergamot oranges will yield about three ounces (85 grams) of bergamot oil.

Granted, (also from wiki) the amount of bergamottin (the furanocoumarin we're concerned with here) in bergamot essential oil is reported to be 2.142%. The thing is, we just don't know how much of this particular substance affects the CYP3A4 enzymes of any particular person. It's frankly irresponsible to discount the warning and say it has a 0.01% chance of adverse effects because it's a small amount.

Problems have been reported from Earl Grey tea, which, (here I'm pulling an assumption from my personal experience) probably has a lower concentration of bergamot essential oil than snus, because the bergamot flavor is much less pronounced.

My pharmacist's take on the matter? "Maybe once every 2-3 weeks won't hurt, but I'd advise you to avoid it because the PI sheet says to avoid it."

[pouchface]

If you're worried about it, just use a plain snus like Ettan. Problem solved.

[Mroe]

If you're worried about it, just use a plain snus like Ettan. Problem solved.

Is there a list of non-bergamot snus options posted anywhere?

[Andy105]

I've used General products with bergamot for ages, with no effect on any heart medications that I'm on (some do have a grapefruit warning), and I'm tested regularly. I don't drink grapefruit juice, due to that, or bergamot juice, but have never been concerned about the trace amounts of bergamot in snus. Of course, your results may vary.

[Mroe]

I've used General products with bergamot for ages, with no effect on any heart medications that I'm on (some do have a grapefruit warning), and I'm tested regularly. I don't drink grapefruit juice, due to that, or bergamot juice, but have never been concerned about the trace amounts of bergamot in snus. Of course, your results may vary.

Thank you, Andy, for sharing your experiences with me. My condition is largely anxiety-related (as if that wasn't obvious...) and I had no idea about the potential interactions until I stumbled upon it by chance. I'm interested in hearing anyone else's experiences with bergamot-flavored snus and any of the listed medications, because I'll admit that I may be blowing the issue out of proportion. My main concern would be, since I am not blood tested for any of the medications I take, having an elevated level of the medications in my system due to poor metabolism caused by the bergamot.

I don't particularly want to give up my General, especially since it's dirt cheap and available locally, but since the whole reason for me switching to snus from smoking was health-related, I'm not sure how much of a chance I'm willing to take on potential health hazards from the bergamot oil.

[chadizzy1]

Is there a list of non-bergamot snus options posted anywhere?

02 Strong Portion
05 White Strong Long
06 Extra Strong Long
07 White Extra Strong Long
12 Fresh Mint White Strong Long
Blue Ocean Blue Portion
Catch White Eucalyptus Portion
Catch White Licorice Portion
Catch White Spearmint Long Portion
Ettan Portion
Ettan White Portion
General Mint White Portion
General Nordic Mint Portion
Goteborg’s Rape Lime
Goteborg’s Rape Lingon
Goteborg’s Rape White
Goteborg’s Rape White Slim
Grovsnus Portion
Grovesnus Strong Portion
Grovsnus White Portion
Islay Whiskey Snus
Jakobsson’s Flader
Jakobsson’s Ice Fruit
Jakobsson’s Melon
Jakobsson’s Mint
Jakobsson’s Wintergreen
Nick & Johnny Captain Yankee
Nick & Johnny Crushed Ice
Nick & Johnny Crushed Ice White
Nick & Johnny Green Spyke
Nick & Johnny Radical Red
Nord 66 Cold Blast
Nord 66 Nordic Breeze
Nord 66 Southern Storm
Oden’s 59 Extreme Cinnamon
Oden’s Cold
Odens Cold White Dry
Oden’s Extreme Cold White Dry
Oden’s Extreme Cold
Oden’s Extreme Licorice
Oden’s Extreme Pure Wintergreen
Oden’x Extreme Vanilla
Offroad Wintergreen
Offroad Coola White
Offroad Eucalyptus
Offroad Frosted
Offroad Licorice
Olde Ving 99 Coffee
Old Ving Fudge
Olde Ving Melon
Phantom Blue
Probe Whiskey
Roda Lacket
Skruf Cranberry
Skruf Slim Fresh White
Skruf Slim Polar Strong White
Lab Fresh Cool Mint
Lab Fresh Mint
Thunder Blue Extra Strong
Thunder Cool Mint
Thunder Coola
Thunder Frosted Long
Thunder Frosted
Thunder Raspberry
Thunder Ultra Frosted RAW
Thunder Ultra Brandy Alexander
Thunder Ultra Raspberry
Thunder White Cool Mint
Thunder White Frosted ES
Thunder Ultra White RAW Frosted
Thunder White Wintergreen
Thunder Wintergreen
Tre Ankare

[Burnsey]

I've used General products with bergamot for ages, with no effect on any heart medications that I'm on (some do have a grapefruit warning), and I'm tested regularly. I don't drink grapefruit juice, due to that, or bergamot juice, but have never been concerned about the trace amounts of bergamot in snus. Of course, your results may vary.

^^^ This, pretty much my experience and conclusion as well...

[Mroe]

02 Strong Portion
05 White Strong Long
06 Extra Strong Long
07 White Extra Strong Long
12 Fresh Mint White Strong Long
Blue Ocean Blue Portion
Catch White Eucalyptus Portion
Catch White Licorice Portion
Catch White Spearmint Long Portion
Ettan Portion
Ettan White Portion
General Mint White Portion
General Nordic Mint Portion
Goteborg’s Rape Lime
Goteborg’s Rape Lingon
Goteborg’s Rape White
Goteborg’s Rape White Slim
Grovsnus Portion
Grovesnus Strong Portion
Grovsnus White Portion
Islay Whiskey Snus
Jakobsson’s Flader
Jakobsson’s Ice Fruit
Jakobsson’s Melon
Jakobsson’s Mint
Jakobsson’s Wintergreen
Nick & Johnny Captain Yankee
Nick & Johnny Crushed Ice
Nick & Johnny Crushed Ice White
Nick & Johnny Green Spyke
Nick & Johnny Radical Red
Nord 66 Cold Blast
Nord 66 Nordic Breeze
Nord 66 Southern Storm
Oden’s 59 Extreme Cinnamon
Oden’s Cold
Odens Cold White Dry
Oden’s Extreme Cold White Dry
Oden’s Extreme Cold
Oden’s Extreme Licorice
Oden’s Extreme Pure Wintergreen
Oden’x Extreme Vanilla
Offroad Wintergreen
Offroad Coola White
Offroad Eucalyptus
Offroad Frosted
Offroad Licorice
Olde Ving 99 Coffee
Old Ving Fudge
Olde Ving Melon
Phantom Blue
Probe Whiskey
Roda Lacket
Skruf Cranberry
Skruf Slim Fresh White
Skruf Slim Polar Strong White
Lab Fresh Cool Mint
Lab Fresh Mint
Thunder Blue Extra Strong
Thunder Cool Mint
Thunder Coola
Thunder Frosted Long
Thunder Frosted
Thunder Raspberry
Thunder Ultra Frosted RAW
Thunder Ultra Brandy Alexander
Thunder Ultra Raspberry
Thunder White Cool Mint
Thunder White Frosted ES
Thunder Ultra White RAW Frosted
Thunder White Wintergreen
Thunder Wintergreen
Tre Ankare

Wowza. Thanks so much!

[trebli]

That’s a great list, Chad. Maybe we can get it “stickied”. How did you do that so fast?

[chadizzy1]

That’s a great list, Chad. Maybe we can get it “stickied”. How did you do that so fast?

I have a list in my inbox, someone asked me this question a few weeks ago so I just copied the list I sent him.

[SnusBooth]

I have a list in my inbox, someone asked me this question a few weeks ago so I just copied the list I sent him.

Thanks for that list man, that's going to come in handy for sure. Does that happen to be a complete list?