Comments on: Cholestyramine (CSM) Uses & Side Effects

By: Robert Johnson

Robert Johnson — Thu, 26 Mar 2020 19:50:58 +0000

Can cholestyramine detox your body from mycotoxins? I have 12 times the normal amount from urine test…will this work to rid the body of mold?

By: Kim

Kim — Thu, 27 Feb 2020 18:07:21 +0000

There is plenty of published information proving CIRS is very real. Approximately 25% of the population has genetic markers where their bodies are not able to remove biotoxins like the other 75%. It’s shameful that the truth is not being told, and that most doctors are not testing for and treating it appropriately, leaving people to suffer long-term and treated like they are crazy.

By: Beth

Beth — Thu, 16 Jan 2020 23:24:50 +0000

There is, in fact, evidence that borrelia burgdorferi (Lyme) is a persister. Viable spirochetes have been cultured from the tissue of primates treated with a standard course of antibiotics. There’s a gulf between what researchers–such as Dr. Ying Zhang at John Hopkins–and clinicians understand with regard to BBUR. The messaging cited above is predicated on long outdated studies and serves only to perpetuate confusion and delay proper diagnoses/care for patients suffering from this quite serious tick-borne disease. For anyone wanting to learn what’s current in the study of BBUR, pls see this recent review of the literature: Lyme Disease Frontiers: Reconciling Borrelia Biology, (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31888245), published 16 Dec 2019.

By: Remi

Remi — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 00:53:22 +0000

I understand that the science may not all be there to back up the use of Cholestyramine for CIRS and Lyme, but as someone who’s suffers significantly from Lyme disease and having lived in a house with mold, my anecdotal experience of how my treatment for CIRS has helped me is all that I need to know that there is some validity to the claims.

By: Donna

Donna — Wed, 06 Nov 2019 20:51:04 +0000

I am extremely wary of all prescription drugs and very rarely take them. But I have CIRS. Contrary to this article it is very real – I had significant damage to my eyes due to inflammation, including significant vision loss, as well as sudden hearing loss in one ear. It was my ophthalmologist who said the cause must be environmental because he did every eye test under the sun and there was no internal cause. Now, a year later and out of the mold house, my eyes are back to normal and my vision back to where it was before the mold. My IGG blood tests are still off the charts for mold, but CSM has been a huge help and critical to my recovery.

Here is the key though: Commercial CSM contains propylene glycol and artificial color and flavor. So, many people may be reacting to those. I know I would be. So I get mine from a compounding pharmacy with zero additives. Then I encapsulate it myself with a little hand machine I bought online (it tastes wretched otherwise). I feel great on it and I’m the most sensitive person. So that’s the method I recommend.

And if you have mold illness, realize that what’s making people think it’s not real is largely due to a huge lobbying force funded by the building and real estate industries, and literally masterminded by one of the guys behind the “tobacco is harmless” campaigns years ago. There’s too much money at stake for the building industries to allow mold illness to be validated, although that’s starting to change just like it eventually did for tobacco. So before you dismiss it, look at the politics and actual studies and who is funding what and what their ulterior motives are.

And to answer the question of whether a liver cleanse or flush will do the same thing, the answer is no, because you reabsorb the mycotoxins through your intestinal wall, so they just continually recirculate. You need a binder, whether it’s CSM or something else. For me CSM is easy and cheap ($150 for a couple months worth) and works great. Zero side effects. It clears my head and gives me energy.

By: Diana

Diana — Fri, 02 Aug 2019 03:58:01 +0000

does taking CSM reduce or affect estrogen levels? Is this why hit flashes can be a side affect?

By: David R. Schwertfeger

David R. Schwertfeger — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 17:17:36 +0000

Having had my life destroyed in seconds via inhalation of massive quantities of “organic dust”, I have spent 1000’s of hrs. looking at this subject and bookmarked more than 5,000 pages of scientific data. I am of the opinion that cholestyramine is likely to evacuate circulating toxins in the system, it will not eliminate the source of said toxicity if produced internally such as biofilms, either bacterial or fungal. For that reason I am seeking to define the source before starting CSM although I am using activated charcoal. Since I also have multiple chemical & chronic fatigue syndrome I see high carbon voc’s whose chemical composition resembles that of toxins as part of the problem and are both a trigger and potential biomarker. In short if the problem reoccurs, the cause, which could be many, has NOT been scientifically defined and/or eliminated. Mere presence of said toxins alone is not enough. There has to be in my opinion some type of validation of the immune response as well. I am getting close to that validation. I am the perfect guinea pig having painted more than 800 homes, rebuilt numerous dirty, dusty, moldy homes, incurred serious h-pylori infection, etc. all without incident over 20 yrs. Then one day I inhaled a volume of dust coming out of a damaged ceiling in a house I was looking to buy. The impact was immediate resulting in permanent lung infection resulting in acute asthma and worse, massive explosion of the sinuses, gastro issues, systemic inflammation of internal organs, and varying expressions of more than 12 auto-immune diseases from day to day. I wish you well, but as stated do not believe you have found the underlying cause of your symptoms. There has to be more. Best wishes. Dave the Painter, Rochester, NY.

By: Crystal Goosney

Crystal Goosney — Sun, 18 Nov 2018 04:59:50 +0000

My 16 year old daughter has been taking a packet every night for more than a year. The doctor wanted her to try it because we could’t figure out why she kept having stomach aches.

I haven’t seen any research as to how long a person should take it. Now that I read that you say it damages your liver I want to take her off of it. We have tried to get her off of it before, decreasing the dose to half, but her stomach aches came back. And when she forgets to take it for a few days, the stomach aches come back.

Do you have any suggestions on if she should still be taking it? You also said that it messes with the thyroid, which I know that she is having symptoms from….. thinning hair… constantly cold….fatigue….depression.

So frustrating…

By: Greg

Greg — Wed, 17 Oct 2018 06:47:42 +0000

Damn, I didn’t know it lowered thyroid hormones. It seemed to have a lot of benefits before I knew that. Any decent alternatives?

By: Selena Tauchert

Selena Tauchert — Mon, 03 Sep 2018 14:46:08 +0000

Having read this I believed it was extremely enlightening.
I appreciate you spending some time and effort to put
this informative article together. I once again find myself spending a significant amount
of time both reading and posting comments. But so what, it was still
worth it!

By: Shirley Havens

Shirley Havens — Mon, 03 Sep 2018 14:22:11 +0000

what does this do for C DIFF

By: Hypnogal

Hypnogal — Wed, 27 Jun 2018 19:25:49 +0000

Hi. I take cholestyramine dry raw powder (very very $$$) because I cannot have food colorings (orange in the name brand Questran.) I take it because I have bile salt diahrrea ever since I had my gallbladder out. This binds to excess bile and stops horrific diahrrea. My question is… I’ve been taking 4gms, 30 minutes before a meal 3x a day. What I understand is, when I eat a meal (that has fat in it), my liver (now) dumps bile directly into my small intestine…and so I need to get the medication in the small intestine well before I eat any meal that would trigger this bile release (in the small intestine.) I find, for me, that if I take it WITH a meal, it doesn’t work (as well) at all. So it’s the 30 minute rule for me… is this making sense to all y’all who take it to bind bile? If you take it for the same reasons please tell me how you take it. Thank you.

By: Jackie

Jackie — Wed, 02 May 2018 04:08:51 +0000

I have been taking 4mg of Cholestyramine daily for 18 years for bile binding. I have had no side affects except I have a hard time losing weight and often questioned my thyroid. This article has helped with possible thyroid hormone issue which I will talk to my doctor about. Other than that, using Cholestyramine has given me back freedom.

By: Pat

Pat — Sat, 14 Apr 2018 14:54:49 +0000

I have taken cholestyramine for a month for high LDL. I cannot take statins because of severe muscle pain. Now I am experiencing muscle and leg cramps that are not as bad as previous muscle pain, but wake me up at night. Is this common?

By: Kathleen G Babcock

Kathleen G Babcock — Fri, 30 Mar 2018 02:21:20 +0000

I can’t thank you enough about the warm water. My husband takes it for his illiostomy output. Helps it not run so fast thru his system. But he kept gagging and throwing it up. Warm water did the trick along with an ice water chaser.

By: Smalm4444

Smalm4444 — Thu, 29 Mar 2018 07:50:16 +0000

I am scared for my sanity and well being when my Cholestyramine is out of refills. Ever since I had the diagnosis of a fatty liver and a bad gallbladder I had horrible, liquid lava diarrhea. I have had my gallbladder removed and even a low fat diet was not helpful at all. I was very happy when my surgeon put me on this, my only side effects are gas and constipation. I only got told to stay away from carbs to help my liver and stat away from data to not have diarrhea after my gallbladder removal. Even with these changes it was happening still. This medication is the only one I can take for OTC Immodium causes constipation with even a 4th of a 2 mg pill. This is amazing though.

By: DR. CHIGOZIRI A. MOSES, PHD

DR. CHIGOZIRI A. MOSES, PHD — Fri, 23 Mar 2018 21:05:08 +0000

I thank you so much the useful information you presented about the product.

By: Lynne McCarty

Lynne McCarty — Mon, 19 Mar 2018 01:02:16 +0000

I have tried several times to take CSM for CIRS but have found that even at miniscule doses I tolerate it for about two weeks and increasingly become really unwell with an extreme intensification of all symptoms including re-introducing symptoms I no longer suffered from. It became unbearable each time and the next time I would start from an even smaller dose. I eat a high fat diet and have vastly improved gut issues that I once had to the point my guts can feel almost normal. I have been taking Vit D, fish oils, magnesium and other balanced minerals for some years and am under the supervision of a Shoemaker doctor. I still don’t understand though why I, and some others, just cannot tolerate CSM.

By: Barry Trute

Barry Trute — Tue, 13 Mar 2018 14:12:51 +0000

Anyone have a source for pure cholestryamine? I want to use cholestryamine without the fillers.

By: Jeannie

Jeannie — Sat, 03 Mar 2018 11:17:08 +0000

That’s exactly how I felt after I just drank a cup of the Cholestryamine! I was panicking so much that I began to look up side effects of the medication; when I stumbled upon this page. I have drank it before without any side effects, but this time my heart started racing and my head was pounding. I honestly don’t even know why my doctor put me on this medication. Do you think that I may have just drank the mixture too fast, in an attempt to get the horrible taste over with?

By: David

David — Thu, 04 Jan 2018 18:18:02 +0000

Cholestyramine is non-systemic so these symptoms you describe are exceptionally strange.

By: Justin

Justin — Tue, 24 Oct 2017 20:32:02 +0000

After having had an emergency open right hemicolectomy after my appendix perforated my colon, (the inflammation also caused an umbilical hernia) followed less than two months later by a cholecystectomy (and the gallbladder was found to be gangrenous), I can say that Cholestyramine has been a life changer for me. Although I don’t – and probably never will – feel completely normal again, at least I am able to go about my day without the fear of sudden, intense urgency and pain associated with bile acid diarrhea.

It does have a gritty texture, but mixing it with warm water helps. It tastes like a less-sweetened Tang mixture. Just be sure to thoroughly clean your teeth after taking it to prevent damage to your enamel.

By: Miki

Miki — Thu, 12 Oct 2017 22:46:19 +0000

I take this to absorb the bile from needed digestion due to my stomach remove from cancer. It helps a lot. I’ve been taking it… not daily… but 75% of the time. I’ve had no side effects yet that l know of. The gritty texture is my friend as l know the excess bile is being absorbed. This works immediately. I don’t always need it but if l eat high protein without fiber included, my esophagus gets burned. I keep it on my night stand at night in case l get bile reflex in the middle of the night, Just a sip or two does the trick. I prefer the orange flavor but it’s disappeared? Also they seem to have smoothed it out for those who don’t like the grit. However…. the grit is what does the trick…does the absorbing. I wonder if my pharmacy has switched manufacturers? Hard to know because clearly they don’t.

By: Oskar

Oskar — Thu, 10 Nov 2016 18:28:33 +0000

In theory should one achieve similar results doing liver flushes regularly? Mechanism at least looks similar – dump the bile out, synthesize new bile from cholesterol, dump it out again and repeat until feeling better.