When taking cyclosporine you should not eat potassium foods in excess which include oranges, bananas, potatoes, spinach, orange juice, and do not eat grapefruits or drink grapefruit juice or any soda or fruit juice blend which contains grapefruit juice.
Grapefruit when consumed with cyclosporine can increase the levels of cyclosporine in your body to a toxic level.
You should also avoid taking cyclosporine if you're getting live vaccines and should also avoid photosynthesizing drugs as well as medications used to treat gout, medications for fluid reducing and blood pressure medications when taking cyclosporine.
People who should not take cyclosporine are people that have kidney problems, high blood pressure which is not managed well, people with cancer or if you have psoriasis or rheumatoid arthritis.
The most serious adverse effects and side effects of cyclosporine are liver problems, kidney problems, infections and high blood pressure.
The use of cyclosporine may also increase your risk of getting skin cancer or lymphoma.
You should talk to your doctor about any concerns you have about the risk.
Cyclosporine may also increase your risk of developing infections and you should also avoid being around people who are sick while you're using cyclosporine.
The medications that interact with cyclosporine include danazol, diltiazem, erythromycin, fluconazole, itraconazole, ketoconazole, metoclopramide, nicardipine, verapamil, carbamazepine, phenobarbital (phenobarbitone), phenytoin, rifampicin (rifampin) and cotrimoxazole (trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole).
Cyclosporine is a medication and immunosuppressive agent that is used for treating organ rejection post transplant.
Cyclosporine is also used in certain other autoimmune diseases and treatment of organ rejection in kidney, liver and heart allogeneic transplants, rheumatoid arthritis when the conditions have not adequately responded to methotrexate.