I was diagnosed in December and given 40mg of prednisone per day, as well as 4000mg of Pentasa. I had a hard time tapering off of the prednisone, so about a month ago my doctor put me on Cipro and Flagyl, as well as leaving me on 20mg of prednisone to try and get my inflammation down. My crohn's is mild to moderate, and my only symptom is diarrhea. My doctor (who is not a GI, there isn't one close to us so I haven't gone to a GI yet) said that if the antibiotics don't work the next step would be infusions. After looking around on the forum it looks like there are a lot of other drugs available before getting to infusions. Any ideas how to ask my doctor about trying something else first?
Next Medicine?
- Thread starter McM17
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Help Support Crohn's Disease Forum:
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Hey, here is an overview over the current standard meds used for Crohn's:
5-Asa (Mesalazin): works superficially, helps mostly for UC patients but has little use for long term remission for Crohn's patients (which is why it is not being used much any more even for mild Crohn's with little to any symptoms)
Corticosteroids (predisone, budenoside): only used to treat severe inflammation in the short term. Should never taken in the long term (longer than a few months) due to its side effects and long term damage it can do. Bets to avoid, unless really necessary to fight a flare.
Immunosuppressives (azathioprine/6mp): until biologics have become mainstream 10 years ago, this was the only effective long term medication around. They control the white blood cell count in order to keep them at the lower end of the normal range. In case of a potential flare coming up, this means that the immune system can't overreact and thus inflammation doesn't get bad. They can be taken long term but can increase the risk of infection if wrongly dosed and also can affect the liver (therefore you do regular blood tests) and are associated with a slighlty higher risk of certain types of cancer.
Biologics (remicade, humira, cimzia): they are the newest and most effective drugs (sometimes used in combination with azathioprine because studies showed this even enhances the effectiveness). Remicade is an infusion, humira is self injected every few weeks. It's debatable whether biologics are more dangerous than immunosuppressives, they have more side effects though.
Then there are lots of other non standard meds which are used, some have shown promise (LDN) but have not gotten to the stage that they are accepted mainstream use for Crohn's.
I hope that this gives a bit of an overview. There is much more information on this board on medication. Just beware, meds alone are never enough, eating the right food and avoiding the wrong stuff, getting vitamin and other deficiencies under control, stress management etc. are equally important.
Cheers,
A
P.S. you can ask your doc for whatever meds you want to. It is on him to explain to you effects, effectiveness and long term use of everything he prescribes. He is there to help you, it shouldn't be your job to ask him about other meds, it should be on him to provide you with a good overview of everything that is available and the pros and cons. Just my two cents...
5-Asa (Mesalazin): works superficially, helps mostly for UC patients but has little use for long term remission for Crohn's patients (which is why it is not being used much any more even for mild Crohn's with little to any symptoms)
Corticosteroids (predisone, budenoside): only used to treat severe inflammation in the short term. Should never taken in the long term (longer than a few months) due to its side effects and long term damage it can do. Bets to avoid, unless really necessary to fight a flare.
Immunosuppressives (azathioprine/6mp): until biologics have become mainstream 10 years ago, this was the only effective long term medication around. They control the white blood cell count in order to keep them at the lower end of the normal range. In case of a potential flare coming up, this means that the immune system can't overreact and thus inflammation doesn't get bad. They can be taken long term but can increase the risk of infection if wrongly dosed and also can affect the liver (therefore you do regular blood tests) and are associated with a slighlty higher risk of certain types of cancer.
Biologics (remicade, humira, cimzia): they are the newest and most effective drugs (sometimes used in combination with azathioprine because studies showed this even enhances the effectiveness). Remicade is an infusion, humira is self injected every few weeks. It's debatable whether biologics are more dangerous than immunosuppressives, they have more side effects though.
Then there are lots of other non standard meds which are used, some have shown promise (LDN) but have not gotten to the stage that they are accepted mainstream use for Crohn's.
I hope that this gives a bit of an overview. There is much more information on this board on medication. Just beware, meds alone are never enough, eating the right food and avoiding the wrong stuff, getting vitamin and other deficiencies under control, stress management etc. are equally important.
Cheers,
A
P.S. you can ask your doc for whatever meds you want to. It is on him to explain to you effects, effectiveness and long term use of everything he prescribes. He is there to help you, it shouldn't be your job to ask him about other meds, it should be on him to provide you with a good overview of everything that is available and the pros and cons. Just my two cents...
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2013
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Here's the deal. Big Pharma owns the AMA, the FDA and the universities teaching the latest minds in medicine. Medical studets learn to prescribe drugs and are given gifts from Big Pharma companies in exchange for peddling te drugs.
Nature is giving you a problem then she will provide the solution. Run an anti-parasitic diet for 3-4 months and see yourself vibrant again.
Nature is giving you a problem then she will provide the solution. Run an anti-parasitic diet for 3-4 months and see yourself vibrant again.
