How do they flush Aubagio out of your system

[emily06]

I read that when you have to go off Aubagio for whatever reason you have to get it flushed out of your system. But I've never heard how they do that. So, what do you have to do to get it out?

[Alicious]

I've done it!

You are prescribed a powder called cholestyramine that you mix with liquid at home and drink 3 times a day for 11 days. It is very gritty and mildly unpleasant, but it's doable. It is also prescribed to people who can't take statins to help with cholesterol, so I was asked to verify that I really needed as much as I did as the dosage was unusual.

Aubagio is stored in your bile, and this powder binds with the bile in your intestines so you pass it out through stool. The body tends to reuse bile for a very long time, which is why Aubagio stays in the body so long if you don't flush it out. You just make new bile to replace what leaves with the cholestyramine.

[emily06]

thank you

Does that make you have to go to the bathroom more often to get rid of all of that.

[Kimba22]

This drug is sometimes used to treat diarrhea, as one of the possible side effects of this medication is constipation. I was put on it several years ago because of loose stools while I was in the hospital. It also helps my mother-in-law, who has colitis.

But, conversely, another possible side effect of cholestyramine is diarrhea. This is the side effect hoped for to flush Aubagio out of your system. Activated charcoal is another medicine that can be used.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/d...s/a682672.html

http://www.nationalmssociety.org/Nat...ut-Aubagio.pdf

[Alicious]

I definitely had looser stools and was pretty gassy, but nothing approaching diarrhea. I can only speak for myself, but it is definitely possible to flush out the meds and still live a normal life without living in the bathroom. The bile is still leaving your system, I promise!

[Kimba22]

I definitely had looser stools and was pretty gassy, but nothing approaching diarrhea. I can only speak for myself, but it is definitely possible to flush out the meds and still live a normal life without living in the bathroom. The bile is still leaving your system, I promise!

Hi Alicious,

Thanks for sharing, it's good to know you didn't have to experience diarrhea to flush it out of your system! I'm no doctor, but since the bile binds to the cholestyramine, it makes sense to me that Aubagio would still get flushed out your system, even without diarrhea.

According to Dr. Jim Bowen:

... you flush the compound out of your body. And you do that by taking another medicine, either a cholestyramine or activated charcoal. That actually gives you diarrhea, which flushes the drug out. But you have to do that for 11 days.

http://www.nationalmssociety.org/Nat...ut-Aubagio.pdf

[Alicious]

My neuro warned me it could be brutal, but thankfully it was pretty boring. I guess I can only speak for me, though; I hope I am the norm. The Aubagio itself game me terrible diarrhea, so I guess the was out was pleasant by comparison?

[swpanther1]

just to add my experience with Aubagio:

a year ago I took a total of 7 pills/7 days. I ended up with lesions/burns that would NOT stop spreading while I was taking the flush....I noticed they started at day 4, but my neuro said to "keep taking it". On day 7 I said that's it, I'm done......After a week of trying to 'flush', my doc put me on a week of oral steroids...that stopped the lesions immediately, thank God. I am lucky it did not get to my face, but the lesions were everywhere else. I dealt with the FDA, sent pictures, etc.

my primary family doc said they were 'burns', it was Stevens-Johnson syndrome, and I should have been put into the hospital. my neuro specialist was not my favorite person during that whole ordeal.

although I'm sure it does help some people, I shudder to think what taking the pills long term will do to people if only 7 did that to me.