Asacol HD taper

I have been on asacol for 2 and a half years after being hospitalized and near dead almost 3 years ago now...The drug is working great, but the doctors have been weening me to smaller doses over the last year. Im at 2400 mgs right now, and they would like me to be at 1600...My BM's have been good, and on time every morning the last 2 years, but I seem to get a slight bit cramping in the morning since going to 1600, with no other problems, just feel a slight disturbance with the reduction to 1600, so I am doing 1600 one day, and 2300 the next hoping to ease any potential problems from tapering 800 mgs at once...Extremely small problems considering Iv been to the edge of disease once already, and dont want to go back there if at all possible...I was wondering if anyone else here has any experiance in this area...

Good advice...Thanks.

There's no reason to taper the asacol. It helps prevent inflammation from re-developing and can also be a colon cancer preventive. Given at a sub-clinical level (below the recommended dosage) it's probably just a waste of money. These pages could be filled with the stories of people who went into remission, went off 5-ASA's then had a flare that was extremely hard to bring under control.

I'd ask the doc why he feels tapering is appropriate.

The manufacturer of asacol suggests 1600 as a maintenance dose, but from what my bodies telling me, 2400 seems to be doing the trick for a few years now...Dont want to rock the boat..I did get a little spastic with each dose reduction, but it went away in a week or so, this time seems a bit more then I care to mess with...Im thinking you guys are right, and just stay with the 2400...Thanks for taking the time to chime in...