combining alloperinol to reduce side effects
hi guys
thought i'd jump in here even though it's a old post
i've been on mercaptopurine (75mg) for 4.5 months.
the past month i started to develop terrible joint and muscle pain, fatigue/exhaustion, nausea. i thought alot of these symptoms were probably crohns or prednisone related (shows what i know!). went to see a new GI yesterday who has done a heap of research into imuran/6mp etc and he pretty much knew i was going to be in a bad way before he saw me from my blood tests.
anyway to get to the point....
these drugs produce 2 metabolites in our bodies 6MMP & 6TGN.
6MMP = good results
6TGN = side effects if the levels/ratios are to high
i had good levels of 6MMP (YAY) but really high levels of 6TGN. (OH NO thats why i feel like death!)
GREAT NEWS and the point.... this can be fixed by decreasing the mercaptopurine and combining it with another drug alloperinol (a drug they use to treat gout... doesn't look to scary compared to everything else i'm on)
this will completely eliminate the 6tgn from my blood causing the side effects (its my undserstanding this is what causes the liver toxicity too).
so i haven't taken the mercaptopurine for 36hrs (GI said to have a break for a few days) and the joint/muscle pain, fatigue is HEAPS better!
heres a link to some of the research this guys done (theres alot of other research out there too)
bugger can't post the link because i'm too new (will try again in a later post)
i hope it works.... do others have these metabolites tested regularly? how many people are combing amuran/mercaptopurine with alloperinol?