Cholestyramine Effects?

Folks:

A recap of my regimen:

Ceftin with Biaxin (2x day): 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off

Ceftin with Flagyl (2x day): 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off (alternating with the above)

Cholestyramine: 1x daily

The last 5 days, I have had some MAJOR herxing or some other side effects. Last Thurs/Fri. I stopped taking the Cholestyramine Friday and the weekend went pretty well! After a 3-day vacation from it, I took it again Sunday evening and yesterday was a major bad day again! I did not take my daily dosage yesterday and so far today my head seems much clearer.

My question here is, what are others' experiences with Cholestyramine? To me, it seems like it should be rather inert as it binds with toxins in the GI tract and pulls them out - why would this cause a reaction as it seems it is in me? From other on-line sources, it seems it does cause some fairly major reactions in Lyme patients so I am confounded. Thoughts?

 

Thanks for the response Traveler (I think!) LOL! I think the answer to what you ask is YES, too well maybe! Here's the findings - I had called my doc last evening to ask about this and she returned my call today. She is sure there is a Cholestyramine connection - but not like I thought!

Evidently, Cholestyramine binds itself to just about ANYTHING - not just the toxins. With me, I do not think I was timing my dose well and the agent was binding with toxins AND NUTRIENTS. I was becoming under-nourished! How crazy is that? But it makes sense. The dose needs to be carefully timed between and among the meds and the food! Jeez.

I take the dosage at night. Most of my extreme symptoms came on late afternoon. Plus, I typically have small meals for breakfast and lunch and a larger meal for dinner (typically 50-70% of my daily calories are in dinner). So the Cholestyramine was scooping up all my big dinner nutrients and I was operating on only breakfast and lunch - 1000 calories for a guy who needs almost 3000 calories per day due to the working out and the like! Add that to the fact that you NEED nutrition to fight the Lyme and I was losing on all sides. By the time afternoons rolled around, I was deficient in many ways - nutrients and energy. I do take a multivitamin supplement but that only adds basic building blocks - not energy calories.

Oddly enough (but not so odd now), when I had these flare-ups before, they decreased greatly after I ate AND especially if I ate a filling of carbohydrates. Carbs = energy and my energy was severely depleted. No wonder that, after my 5-mile run Sunday, did I feel light-headed - I was inadvertently slowly starving myself. My wife showed both compliment and concern with my recent weight loss so this all kinda adds up. My mom, who always answers a problem with, "You should eat more" was right again (but dumb luck got her that this time!).

Doc sez to take my multi-vitamin and fish oil supps 3x day instead the 1x I do now with the Cholestyramine. But, I tell you, I am a little afraid of that stuff now! Butt (spelling intended), without it, I may have to try the dreaded coffee enemas...uggh! are there other, natural detox methods to prevent reabsorption of toxins in the colon? I have some AbsorbMoreToxins - maybe I'll try that.

Interesting, Traveler! When you say you can't tolerate harsher formulas, what happens? Do you get more intense Lyme-like symptoms or other things? The reason I ask is, in my past, I have been very sensitive to any kind of med. So far, I don't think abx's bother me much (except allergic to the tetracyclines) but like this experience with the cholestyramine, it worries me. Plus I am getting ready to add Flagyl and take away the Biaxin starting tomorrow and that causes me some worry as I have never taken Flagyl before..

BTW, the AbsorbMoreToxins I am trying has the charcoal and bentonite clay - more natural stuff. Do you have to also balance the timing of the activated charcoal with your food intake? That was evidently my issue - I was balancing around my meds okay but not my food and the cholestyramine was binding to the food and not allowing proper nutrient absorption.

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cool. And great explanation! I have incorporated milk thistle in my supps as well - no ill effects to speak of so far. I have backed off some of my supps and herbals too, so as not to mix up all the symptoms and reactions! For instance, I stopped the teasel and grapefruit seed extract for a time until I stopp the abx. My goal at my next LLMD appt in 2 weeks is to find out about the longer term plan. I certainly don't want to be on abx's for more than a couple of months unless there is a real benefit.