Orange juice, potassium supplements, and caffeinated drinks may interfere with certain beta-blocker medications. Your healthcare team can best advise you on what may be safe, depending on the type of beta-blocker and other health factors in your life.

Certain foods, drinks, and supplements can sometimes interact with medications. This includes beta-blockers. Doctors primarily use them to prevent or treat heart disease.

If you’re taking beta-blockers, you may wonder if there are any dietary or lifestyle changes you need to consider.

This article explains beta-blockers and whether you should avoid or restrict any foods, beverages, or supplements while taking them.

If you’re taking beta-blockers or are about to start, you may wonder if you need to make any dietary or lifestyle changes.

Your doctor and healthcare team can best advise you on any food or drink-related changes you may consider when taking beta-blockers.

Beta-blockers 101

These are a group of prescription medications that you can take in the form of a pill or IV. They work byTrusted Source blocking receptor sites, known as beta receptors, for the hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine. Some beta-blockers also bind to sites called alpha receptors.

These receptor sites are found in the heart and other areas of your body. They are responsible for many functionsTrusted Source, like regulating your heart activity and blood pressure.

The effects of beta-blockers depend on which receptors they target. Healthcare professionals use them to treat conditions including high blood pressure, heart attacks or heart failure, and irregular or rapid heartbeats. A doctor may also prescribe them for other reasons, such as migraine, overactive thyroid, or glaucoma in your eyes.

You can read more here about beta-blockers.

You may need to avoid or restrict certain foods and beverages that can interact with beta-blockers.

Fruit juices

For example, some research shows that certain fruit juices such as grapefruit, apple, and orangeTrusted Source may lower the absorption of beta-blockers within your body.

Even though you may be able to enjoy these juices while taking beta-blockers, it’s important to consult your healthcare team. They can guide you on whether these fruit juices interact with your specific medication or whether you should avoid certain fruit juices completely.

Caffeine

Caffeinated foods and beverages may also interact with beta-blockers. Beverages, including coffee, energy drinks, energy bars, and certain soda pops, slow down the breakdown of beta-blockers, causing the medication to stay active in your body for longer.

Alcohol

You may also hear that alcohol can affect how well beta-blockers work for you.

Certain drinks containing alcohol may decreaseTrusted Source the effectiveness of some medications, including beta-blockers. Your doctor can best guide you on how beta-blockers and alcohol may interact with each other. They may advise you to avoid alcohol completely or limit how much you drink.

Learn more here about how alcohol and beta-blockers interact.

If you’re taking beta-blockers, check with your doctor before trying any new supplements. This can include vitamins, minerals, and herbs.

It’s important to know that certain supplements may affect how beta-blockers work.

This includes hawthornTrusted Source, an herbal supplement sometimes used to treat heart failure, can increase the beta-blockers’ effects.

Other supplements — including fumitory, lily of the valley, night-blooming cereus, and piperine, a compound found in black pepper — may increase or decrease the effect of beta-blockers. But research isn’t conclusive. Animal studies (studies on rats) do not provide any specific clinical evidence.

Make sure to consult your healthcare team if you’re taking beta-blockers and might consider starting dietary supplements.

Since doctors often use beta-blockers to help treat heart-related conditions, you can also make other food and lifestyle changes to help improve your overall heart health.

A key step you can take, whether you take beta-blockers or not, is eating less ultra-processed foods. Instead, you might choose more whole, nutritious foods like vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, fish, and beans. One option is the Mediterranean diet, which includes many of those types of food choices and is shown to benefitTrusted Source heart health in general.

You can learn more here about other ways to improve your heart health, such as being more active, getting enough good sleep, limiting alcohol, and not smoking.

Beta-blockers are medications primarily used to treat heart-related conditions.

Some foods, beverages, and supplements may interact with beta-blockers. This might include orange juice, caffeinated drinks, alcohol, and certain supplements.

You can discuss any issues or concerns about beta-blockers with your healthcare team, including any questions you may have about your eating plans when taking this type of medication. They can best guide you on what is safe and may not be recommended, depending on the type of beta-blocker you’re taking and your overall health.