Binders causing exhaustion

Whenever I take cholestyramine or activated charcoal at night, I end up sleeping 2 more hours than usual and wake up exhausted.

Does anyone know what this may indicate?

Hi hammer8 -

It likely indicates you are detoxing! This is really great (binders used to hit me like that when I first started them) and just keep this up and GIVE INTO the sleep as much as you can. Don't fight it - it's your body telling you to slow down or zonk out and let it do its thing.

The digestive process shifts into a different gear overnight, which is more conducive to helping you sleep so maintain this if you can. Please be sure to drink a good amount of water when you wake up - the binding process needs you to be hydrated, and you don't really want to drink a lot of water before bedtime, so do it in the AM.

And don't increase your dose until the exhaustion subsides and you're feeling a little less spent. Then you can increase to higher doses.

Please be sure your bowel movements are regular - or the toxins will "stay" and be reabsorbed.

I would expect the exhaustion and extra sleeping to continue for another week or two but if longer, or you can't manage these sx very well, just lower the dose. And then slowly work higher.

Let us know how you're doing!

-p