Has anyone experienced side effects from Asacol HD?

If so, what were they?

The medicine has absolutely helped my UC go into remission, as I am no longer experiencing any blood, mucous, diarrhea. At the same time I often find that I have noticeable indigestion, occasional nausea, lack of appetite. I don't know if this is related to the Asacol, though I do believe that I wasn't really having these problems prior to flaring/treatment.

I also do have a hiatal hernia which causes GERD, so I guess some of this is attributable to that perhaps. Isn't it fun when you almost always feel sick?

Has anyone experienced any kind of side effects from Asacol (HD or regular) at all, like these or otherwise?

I usually take Asacol hours before each meal. Maybe I'll switch it up and see if anything changes for better or worse.

From regular Asacol, I had frequent headaches and a lot of gas and bloating beyond what just the UC causes. Oh, and it didn't help me go into remission either :(.

My daughter switched from pentasa to mesavantXL and developed pancreatitis. When she stopped taking mesavant it resolved, and when re-challenged her amylase started increasing again - so she cannot use any mesalazine drugs now.
A note of caution - her main symptoms were lack of appetite, increasing nausia, dull then increasing pain especially after eating towards the middle/left under her ribs.
Sue

I got kidney disease (minimal change disease) from taking sulfasalazine which is in the same family as the asacol. This is very rare.

There are possible side effects from any medicine, unfortunately its a roll of the dice or at least feels that way to me.

Duckstar said...

I had surgery to fix a hiatal hernia about 3 1/2 years ago. My heartburn was SO bad. I NEVER get heartburn now but the surgery was not fun and was a long recovery. This was all before I was diagnosed with UC.

What exactly was the surgery and what did you need to do/what did they do to you?

The surgery was laproscopic. They pulled my stomach back through the opening in the diaphram where it had pushed through(the hernia itself) and tightened the diaphram muscles around the esophogus using permanent stitches. They also wrapped part of the stomach around itself to make a new, tighter hiatal. This keeps the acids and everything in the stomach rather than leaking out and causing GERD. I saw a specialist...GI...that sent me for a barium x-ray and a swallow study. The swallow study showed how much muscle tone the entire esophugus had....I had no muscle tone at the hiatal...you could hear and feel gases and fluids going in and out of my stomach and esophugus. I would have had to be on drugs the rest of my life for the GERD and I did not want to be...ha ha to me since I now have UC and I am on more drugs...probably for life. Ugh! The recover was hard....no solids for over a week, pain in the area, no lifting for several weeks. I was teaching PK at the time and took the 2 weeks off at christmas to get the surgery. When I went back over 2 weeks after, I was still very fatigued and was not able to lift or do anything too strenuous. It was worth it though...I feel great in those regards (no heartburn....ever!) My mom has a hiatal hernia too and wants to have surgery. I saw on TV that thry do have a way to do it even less evasivly than mine. Do some research and you will be able to find it.

Hi sfc425,

I have had UC for about 20 years. I started with the Asacol and was on it for about a year and pretty much had a constant flare up the whole time. I got sick at one point and the Dr. said to stop all meds for a week. I felt so much better after that week off of meds and then went back on them. By the end of the first day the I was in pain and going to the bathroom constantly. I told the Dr. that I would not take the Asacol anymore. I have tried all of the meds in that category, cortizone enemas, 6MP (gave me pancreatites) methotrexate and a couple of other that I can't remember the names. Unfortunately, the prednisone is the drug I can take that works for me, but it does take a while. I am currently on my 4th month with my current flare up. My next step is Remicade. Just waiting for authorization from my insurance.

Take care and I hope the Asacol works for you.

The first time I was on Asacol within a week I started getting a stiff neck and my wrists hurt, then I got nauesas, and pain in my abdomen. I stopped taking it and was put on lialda. Same thing happened. I tried asacol again before the big guns and what a mistake. I took four pills that day(I was on eight a day) and I started throwing up violently and I had such sharp pains in my abdomen. It took three days to feel better. I'm allergic to all 5 asa's and 6mp(the same thing happened).

Did anyone have any body odor changes with Asacol? Mine has changed all around, not in a good way either! I looked it up and I guess it is a side effect but I have not heard of anyone else having this side effect. I am not happy about it at all and wondering if anyone else has a suggestion to a better deodorant that would help or body wash.

I have been taking fish oil for years, with no change. I am actually switching to Lialda because I get help from the manufacturer unlike Asacol where I can get no help. Without insurance I can't keep paying so much a month for Asacol. Why did you switch from Lialda back to Asacol? Just curious. As for the odor, it's my whole body not just sweat. I'm not sure what else I can do about it. I will figure something out.

UC Frustration: I noticed a change in my body odor when I turned 25, unrelated to UC. Not saying yours isn't UC related. I wasn't on any meds at the time.

tlhall: THAT is the one side effect I got from Asacol. The first time I was on it, when I was 21, I had tinnitus for 3 days straight at the highest dosage, so I dropped the dosage. When I was on 4.8g/day of Asacol HD, I would get earaches in my right ear, and it would feel/sound as if I had water in my ear. My doctor kept telling me it wasn't related, but as soon as I dropped the dosage to 3.2g/day, it went away. MYSTERIOUS.

Self-Pay labs for nearly 2 months accidentally showed ASACOL HD plunging my platelet count from near 700 to 400 and Neutrophil ranks swelled to 14 instead of max 4 and per Japan they are programmed to attack the gut, dropped to 7 as did WBC. Now there was a bounce in following weeks after and trend down going back up about 50% and falling over again.

Today they were all back at bottom, platelet 407 is just points from in-range. KEY metric due to UC related sagittal sinus thrombosis 2010 and lost ulnar artery 2013.

Not only did ASACOL HD feel good and no urgency all day out with daughter and grand parents but I had the labs to back it up. Never before has a pharmaceutical maint med worked for me.

Also wheatgrass+pseed powder+intestinew
Qing Dai from developing Chinese province
NAC
Green Tea
RS Diet ( Navy beans hot with butter, Slender Sticks Fruit punch with RS2 )
40 drumsticks Whole Foods catering per week
Meatballs Whole Foods
Oats-n-whey
Bryers chocolate ice cream NO LACTOSE


Entire protocol is working, lifting weights and put on 15 lbs. Time to rapidly taper off pred. Flare was so bad that painful BM's result in body wanting to vomit and mouth would rush like a river as I mentally staved off what likely was going to end in dry heaves.

Had 8 interviews so allowed pred to remain high but time to eliminate it I have NO INFLAMMATION C-Reactive Protein scored low today confirming how I feel.

Post Edited (aguywithuc) : 12/18/2013 4:00:57 AM (GMT-7)