Has anyone ever been on Questran ?

 hi all, have a question, my caridologist office called today and he wants to know if i would be willing to try questran since i cannot tolerate statins, have any of you been on it in the past or present.  also, i saw your post about going off the vytorin, but you tried.  els, you sound like you have been through the ringer, that is such a bummer, you too aldo, you sounded a little down yourself, actually, it is nice to know i am not the only one with anxiety that won't go away. i started zoloft today, had to stay close to home because of it, i hope that sideeffect is temorary or that will be one more lost cause.  i go to a natureopathe dr. tomorrow to see about a sub for aspirin and i am goin to ask him for a homosystine check. bye for now

Hi Dgirl :) I am glad to see your doc has recommended this med for you. It is one type of "bile acid sequestrant".

I have never tried it due to having a "fatty liver" from high triglycerides (not alcohol, lol). It also can increase triglycerides a bit....I may try it later after, I get the direct ldl test results back. That will be quiet some time, because they lost the test results from almost 2 months ago. It lowers ldl, which is more harmful than triglycerides, to a certain extent. High tri's can cause pancreatitis. I may well give it a try. Here is some info on this med from the NIH:
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"Bile acid sequestrants bind with cholesterol-containing bile acids in the intestines and are then eliminated in the stool. The usual effect of bile acid sequestrants is to lower LDL-cholesterol by about 10 to 20 percent. Small doses of sequestrants can produce useful reductions in LDL-cholesterol. Bile acid sequestrants are sometimes prescribed with a statin for patients with heart disease to increase cholesterol reduction. When these two drugs are combined, their effects are added together to lower LDL-cholesterol by over 40 percent. Cholestyramine, colestipol, and colesevelam are the three main bile acid sequestrants currently available. These drugs are available as powders or tablets. They are not absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract and 30 years of experience with the sequestrants indicate that their long-term use is safe."
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Good luck with the Zoloft :) I take 20mgs of Lexapro/day and it helps. I wish that I could find a sub for aspirin too. I didn't know that you couldn't take aspirin. I take Plavix, which is one of a couple of prescribed anti-platelet medicines that act on the blood as aspirin does.

Be careful with the naturopath! They do some very extensive blood testing which is good, but some try to keep you coming and BCBS doesn't pay for me to see them. They did pay for the blood work.

Ativan is a very addictive medicine. I hope that you know that. Years ago, I had a very hard time weening myself from it :(

Yes, I was very down a couple of days ago. The Vytorin really made me sick. I am coming around now though. I actually did some yard work yesterday. It was 80 degrees here!

Rj

Hi Dreamgirl,  I was just thinking about you yesterday and was just about to message you to check to see if your doing okay, but decided to give ya a few more days reprieve before I called upon you.  Funny how that works.  I hope the new medication works for you and that your able to tolerate it...I am sending positive thoughts your way   for this.  The Zoloft should work well for your anxiety.  I was on it for several years and really liked but I was taking 200 mg and it finally just quit working for me.  So I am now on Effexor which seems to do its job.  Good luck at your appointment today.  Let us know how it goes....

Now is this for real omacorrx? Are you trying to make money, or help us?

Sorry, I just had to ask, because I am desperate for these type of results. I have already spent lots of money on supplements.....

Rj

Aldo, This is just something interesting I thought you might like to know. My cardiologist actually put me on Omacor after he found the coronary artery spasms. It is not to lower triglycerides or better my cholesterol but because he thinks Omega-3's make your arteries healthier. He prescribed Omacor instead of having me buy a supplement somewhere because it is the only prescription available for Omega-3's. You cannot buy it anywhere-at least not in the States. It is by prescription only! Each capsule has 1gram of Omega-3's. It is guaranteed pure of mercury or anything harmful and each capsule is guarantee to have 1gram of Omega-3's in it. My cardiologist did a study on the available supplements of fish oils available in Walmart, Target, etc.. and found you cannot guarantee the purity or quantity in the pills. ???? It was interesting. So now instead of telling patients to go out and but fish oil capsules he writes a prescription for Omacor for his patients that he thinks it will benefit. It is like any other medicine you would get a prescription for! My health care medicine provider even pays for it!!! You can google Omacor and find out about it.

Moderator, sorry about posting a link to a website, I was unaware I couldnt do that- I am not advertising.Aldo, Yes its for real, I have been on omacor since Oct 18 2005 and it has been the only thing that has helped me. I am also on Lipitor (not advertising it, just what my primary care has me on) and my triglycerides were still high. He put me on Omacor because he says it will lower tricligerides due to the Omega 3. I used to take Costco fish oil, but only few caps a day and thats not as potent as prescription strenth omacor. I have family history of CHD and high cholestrol even thought I watch my diet and excercise 4-5 xs a week. Like Hopes said- do a search on google for omacor to read more about it and it will take you to the sites that give more info on who should take it etc. Good luck, id like to hear if you do as well as I did on it!

Aldo, BTW my doctor diagnosed me with Mild Fatty liver, due to high Trigs/Fats in my blood. Thus he said Omacor or Omega 3s will be beneficial.

Hi nofx78,  I wanted to welcome you to healing well forum.  We are glad to have you.  It is okay to share treatments that have helped you personally but please make sure that you do follow the forum rules and guidelines.  Thank you for the information, I am sure it will be beneficial to many.  I hope to see more of so please do continue to post.  Take care....

HI ALL, it has been a while since i was on the site. first off, i am only on 25mg of zoloft and it has reduced my backpain by 50% i tried raising it to 50mg but i was sick and decided to just back down to the lower dose for a while, i have a very low tolerance to all meds and for 25 to do anything is amazing.  i have not started questran, actually, thanks for reminding me, i will ask my dr. for a prescription.  aldo, did you say it does not effect my gastrointestinal tract, are you sure? my ibs  has been a problem on the zoloft, so many meds make you have bowel issues.  wow, interesting about the omacor, you first aldo  haha. hope everyone has been doing well, you better aldo? i have been jsut fine, gonna go for a walk right now. later all.

Hey all :)

I had never heard of this medicine before. Nofx78 I have a "fatty liver" also from high triglycerides. I going to ask about this medicine. It's nice to know there is no mercury in it :) Thanks for the info, very much.

Dgirl, I would think that questran could possibly effect your IBS. I know that depression meds in the ssri class are known to cause or exacerbate IBS in some. I had IBS for years and about 4 months ago, it just stopped. I do not know why...I did start taking probiotics, but I think it was after the IBS stopped. My memory is really bad, lol. Hope the new med works for you.

Elisha, taxes are killing me, lol. How are you? I am behind on the board.....

Rj

I am doing okay RJ, I have quite a bit of muscle spasms the last few days from the MS.  Working through it though :)  thank you for asking....I hate tax time, I did mine early this year just to get it done and out of the way.  Try not to get to stressed over it....I know easier said than done.

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 ~elisha~ 

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Aldo, I hadnt heard about the medication before Oct, I believe its new. Although, I saw that its been in europe for years. I have researched this drug extensively because ive had my father start taking it aswell. If you go to the american heart associations website-- look under guidlines for fish oil and it will say you need 2-4 grams of epa and dha from fish oil to lower triglicerides-- omacor has epa dha! I looked at the mechinism of how it works, and its a lot of mumbo jumbo-- but one thing is said was it slowed production of trigs and increased metabolism of tryclicerides. BTW, its expensive. like $1 a capsule, but I was lucky my Insurance covers it. Let me know what your doctor says about it.