GrittyHope said...
I finally just read Pravda’s paper linked to here about the combined therapy. It raises a few questions for me that I wonder if others have seen addressed elsewhere:
- I know budesonide is less systemically absorbed, but is it advisable as part of a long-term combined enema treatment, as the paper seems to suggest? Or would the steroid be dropped from the enema compound after remission was achieved?
- for those of us with 5-ASA intolerances, it boggles my mind that there haven’t been alternative anti-inflammatories discovered. I’m disappointed this protocol wouldn’t work for us and wonder if Pravda’s research could ultimately lead to other (non-biologic or immunosuppressant) treatment cocktails that are sensitive to this theory of what’s going on in our beautiful terrible colons.
It's hard to make suggestions from a study that was essentially experimental, so nobody is able to say if one aspect of the formulation should be dropped or something else added. Hopefully Pravda's future paper will clarify.
5-ASA intolerances are, 9 times out of 10, due to additives. If you're taking the suppository form, try switching to the enema form. I personally can't tolerate either, but I know that many UC patients I've spoken to over the years who had bad results from the suppository had better results from the liquid enema.
Deep research on 5-ASAs reveals that the medical professional community doesn't fully understand why they work in UC, but Pravda has indicated in his writings that it's likely because they combat hydrogen peroxide.