Does anyone have this issue? The cholestyramine makes me so nauseous I have to wait about 8 hours from the time I take it, to be able to eat a meal...
If you have had this issue, what did/do you do to help it?
I'm supposed to take the dose 3x/day, but if I take it once, like I said, I'm severely nauseous for at least 8 hours.
Posted by sixgoofykids (Member # 11141) on :
I know cholestyramine can stir things up .... I had trouble with it my second time around, but it was more the Lyme symptoms. I'd ask your doctor. Posted by karenl (Member # 17753) on :
Did you start with very low dose and only slowly add more? In the beginning I got dizzy with half tablet and then I had no problems with 18 a day.
You can also herx from it.
I cannot take the one with artificial sweetener but your Dr. can order ch. without sweetener at lionville.
Did you drink enough filtered water?
Karen
Posted by Elaine G (Member # 20735) on :
I take the powder . I put in it about 4 ounces of V8 juice and mix with a very small wisk.You can also put in a blender.
Drink it down. Then add about another ounce to get rid of the taste.
I've had no problem with it at all.
With the powder I wait 1 to 1-1/2 hours before and after food or pills.
Are you allowing enough time between meds and food before you take the Cholestyramine?
Posted by knshore (Member # 13451) on :
I take it (powder) 2 hours after a meal which includes meds, then I wait a minimum of 2 hours to be able to eat and take meds again. The challenge is, I can't ever eat 2 hours after I take it. I can't drink water either.
It makes me so nauseous I've been having to do phenergan suppositories and can't sit up without gagging.
And, I can't do V8 juice because I have a stomach ulcer.
I get the one without artificial sweetener; it has sugar in it. I don't ever eat any sugar and yeast isn't a problem for me, so it's not an issue for me.
I have tried taking less of a dose which helps a little bit, but the full dose helps me to feel better (migraines) so I want to be able to take the full dose.
Posted by LizaLu (Member # 21483) on :
I do cholestryamine with OJ which makes it quite tasty, but understand some cannot tolerate the natural fruit juice sugars.
On days when i dont take cholestyr. i take 30 or so tablets of Chlorella--cell wall broken kind. It's supposed to be great for detoxing, but I don't know what's working--except that Chlorella is a "smart" phytonutrient--plant based and doesnt extract vitamins/minerals/other meds out of the body.
Hope this helps--i have 3 bottles of chlorella in my house, 1 at work...cholest at both places. I just do what i can when i can.
Posted by WildCondor (Member # 434) on :
You cannot herx from cholestyramine people. You can only herx from anti-spirochetal drugs. Educate yourselves to know what you are talking about so we don't all look even more ridiculous here. Questran can cause nausea. Just stop taking it, or reduce the dose.
Posted by SForsgren (Member # 7686) on :
Actually, Questran can cause a major flair in symptoms. This is why many doctors use Actos with it to limit the worsening of symptoms. If one has mold only, Questran generally does not cause this worsening, but with Lyme, it does. So I am not sure it is entirely true that one will not experience a worsening of symptoms (herx or whatever you call it) from Questran. It does happen.
Posted by canefan17 (Member # 22149) on :
Wild is saying you can't call it a herx because a herx is a "die-off."
A flare up is completely different.
Anything can cause a falreup.
Traveling for me causes a flare-up... not a herx.
Posted by TerryK (Member # 8552) on :
One of the side effects of cholestyramine is severe stomach pain with nausea or vomiting. As six mentioned, it's a good idea to discuss this with your doctor.
Scott is right on, actos is used with cholestyramine to mitigate the flare that lyme patients often experience when dealing with dead bug debri and other toxins.
My understanding is that cholestyramine pulls the dead bug debri out of tissues which causes increased cytokines/inflammation. Cytokines are thought to be a major factor in the Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction as well so it is similar if not the same reaction.
I don't know if the nausea is part of a herx type reaction or a side effect of the medication. If it is a side effect, it may go away after a time on the medication.
Terry I'm not a doctor
Posted by seekhelp (Member # 15067) on :
I took it once and don't know what I'd call it, but I got scary ill quickly. My head felt like it was going numb. I didn't take Actos. I'm not saying a herx, but it waS alarming!
Posted by LizaLu (Member # 21483) on :
The way it was explained to me was that you drink your cholestyr. then 30 minutes later, you eat something with fat (even a scoop of peanut butter or nuts).
I dont have nausea from cholestry. but mainly mine is from antibiotics.
But many react differently. There are natural ways to rid of toxins too and i would write more on that, but i have a case of the brain fog. LOL
Posted by Lymetoo (Member # 743) on :
quote:Originally posted by WildCondor: [QB] You cannot herx from cholestyramine people. You can only herx from anti-spirochetal drugs.
The terminology may not be correct, but CSM CAN cause an intensification of symptoms.
I stopped taking it after a few months. It was horrible stuff.
Posted by emla999/Lyme (Member # 12606) on :
When I first started taking Cholestyramine I experienced very painful headaches......and I do mean painful. I cut the dosage in half and the headaches went a way.
I don't know how or why the cholestyramine gives me a headache when I take it at the full dosage but it does.
Although, other than a little constipation the Cholestyramine never caused me to have any stomach problems.
Posted by TickSick (Member # 1073) on :
Cholestyramine (CSM) can make the person who is taking it feel VERY ill! I believe Richie Shoemaker, the physician who developed the CSM protocol that is used for neurotoxin removal, called this reaction an "intensification reaction." (He talks about it in his book which I believe is called "Desperation Medicine").
Dr. Shoemaker found that patients who had Lyme Disease who used cholestyramine were the people who often become very ill while using CSM, whereas other people who also benefitted greatly from CSM's detox capabilities (people who were not afflicted with Lyme), did not similarly get so sick on it.
As I recall, he recommended using Actos, a medicine used by diabetics, along with the CSM for the first several days on the protocol to properly open up "the receptor sites" for the CSM. It works very well. My first attempt using CSM I became violently ill with horrific headaches and nasty episodes of vomiting.
Within a month after that awful first experience using the protocol, I tried using it again, along with "Actos" for the number of days Dr. Shoemaker recommends. That time I did very well on the CSM and had no problems with headaches, severe nausea or feeling deathly ill.
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