Cholestryamine CSM for Mold constipation / heartburn

Hi gang, I was diagnosed last week with having CIRS. I figured here in the Lyme section people have experience with this drug removing toxins from their bodies. I just started it up (titrating up from 1gm to eventually 4 at the end of the week) but already had one bad bout of heartburn, and now constipation.

I started taking Magnesium 400mg but still am having a hard time (no pun intended)! Anyone can share experiences of their own? Like what you took, or how long it lasted?

I am also doing the no-amylose diet, which is really restricting (and I've been on the gluten free diet for a year and found that fine). I'm afraid I'm going to lose too much more wait and start looking sickly.

Help if you can

Post Edited (Toulouse) : 7/18/2016 3:59:31 PM (GMT-6)

Yes, the doctor is Lyme literate. He also tested me for that through Quest diagnostics. My CD57 was 98 and my C4a was 15k range. My current house has no mold (recently retested) my old home had a major mold issue in the attic (we didn't learn until we were selling when the inspector found it). Also, the house before that I know I had mold in the basement. So there were plenty of opportunities to get infected.

Today is the first day with constipation. But in the Shoemaker protocol it says this is common and that you should take Miralax. (I didn't, I took Magnesium Citrate which usually works like a charm if I am constipated). I was able to have a bowel movement this AM, but very loose, and not a whole lot compared to what I was expecting).

Traveler said...
Was the doctor that diagnosed you with CIRS Lyme literate? That's exactly what Lyme does to the body - chronic inflammation - "You can also get a Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome illness from a brown recluse spider bite; from fish that have been contaminated with ciguetera; and from Borrelia burgdorferi, the bug that causes Lyme Disease."
www.survivingmold.com/news/2014/12/what-is-cirs/

I have severe chronic constipation (all my life) and if I don't take magnesium oxide twice a day ( and I have to take 600 mgs each time right now), plus some other herbs, there's no hope of my bowels moving. It changes periodically depending on what else I'm taking. If you didn't use magnesium oxide, then you need to use that, as it's the only one known to pull water into the lower bowel.

You can try milk of magnesia - it works for almost everyone.

You do need to find a way to resolve this as the longer you go without having a bowel movement, the more toxins your body will store. I learned this the hard way!!

Regarding the cholestyramine -

I might be misunderstanding but are you now taking it and you're having trouble with it or it's not effective?

I take PURE cholestyramine, which is a far cry from the manufactured forms (Welchol or Questran, others). It's pure and the dose is higher. The other stuff did nothing for me and had fillers and aspartame and a bunch of stuff I reacted to. This pure cholestyramine is heaven. Here is a post I made about it - I'm sorry if this isn't your question...or doesn't answer your question - just let me know:

Cholestyramine is generally known as a bile sequestrant—it prevents bile from being produced and increases the removal of bile acids from the body (this is the binding function we’re interested in) and it is also known to lower cholesterol.

I learned that it is a very strong binder and used for mold detoxing and so I knew it would be a step up from the other binders I was using. I started it up again but this time with the PURE form, which I think was also more helpful for me. I also started at very, very small doses but was able to work up to a normal dose fairly easily.

The benefits I have realized are in summary (because I am still discovering new benefits):

A whole other "level" of detoxing, particularly when I chase the coolest. w/ a bentonite clay--always at night after my meals/last supps/last abx dose and then I wait for a couple hrs, take my probiotics and head to bed to "heal".

- Once I started the cholest. at high doses I had a downtick of symptoms, less GI cramping/distended belly/inflammation/diarrhea/constipation.

- I became super regular (like small BMs a couple hrs after each meal kind of regular... I've never experienced that in my life. I think keeping things moving can solve a lot of problems, since the longer fecal matter remains in our intestines, the more toxins are leached from them and the longer leaky gut has an opportunity to let toxins enter the bloodstream, etc...

- The BMs were also well-formed and "normal" - I had no idea they could be like that. LOL TMI, I know - sorry.

- And no longer had a lot of odor (although odor is not a bad thing--just that I was going so regularly that things were really moving, which is also much a critical way to detox.)

- I'm also a believer in the gut-brain connection and have experienced fewer psycho-neuro herxing that skyrocketed as I started treating bart again, and the cholest. has helped me hold on to what little sanity I have left. I think this can be the binding action --or can be due from simply keeping things moving.

- I also experimented to see if the cholest. could be effective with clearing yeast/fungal overgrowth and/or keep it in balance. I was Y/FO-free when I started it, then I went off all antifungals a couple wks later. So far, so good--which is incredible, for me. I don't think it it has any anti fungal properties but I think it can keep anything new growing from settling in the gut maybe because it quickly removes it before it can get established.

- I've had an uptick in energy, which could be due to a couple of things but noticed it around the time I started the cholest.

- I have also started sleeping better and more soundly since starting the high doses of cholest. I dare say I might have even had a couple of dreams--I stopped dreaming when lyme & co entered my life.

It has NOT helped bring back my appetite yet---nothing has been touched that but it has helped in every other aspect of GI suffering.

Hope this is helpful!
-p

Pirouette said...
Cholestyramine is generally known as a bile sequestrant—it prevents bile from being produced and increases the removal of bile acids from the body (this is the binding function we’re interested in) and it is also known to lower cholesterol.

So P, do you know if those of us without a gall bladder shouldn't take cholestyramine? We can't have our bile not flow freely since we have no gall bladder to store extra in, which means we would have zero (or very minimal) bile moving to help us digest food and such. Right?

Or am I misunderstanding something? I just don't want to direct someone wrongly.

Ha! I don't have a doctor that would even be willing to prescribe it to me, so there's no chance of my using it, but I surely didn't want to tell people that it's okay to use if they don't have a gall bladder and put them in any danger!!

Thank you for all of your hard work, P!!

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