Arthritis and allergy medicine (Fexofenadine /AKA Allegra) ?

[LuvOrlando]

There are a lot of false negatives with the celiac blood test, the only true way to know for sure is an endoscopy.

They checked me for this via blood and it was negative but I totally feel worse with wheat, I am supposed to have this soon and am now wondering if there will be a screening in the endoscopy.

 

[princesscinderella]

They checked me for this via blood and it was negative but I totally feel worse with wheat, I am supposed to have this soon and am now wondering if there will be a screening in the endoscopy.

I'd mention it to the Dr doing the endoscopy that you would like them to look for signs of Celiac even though your blood test showed negative. It could just be an intolerance too and not as severe as Celiac.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Saw this article and wondered if anyone on the thread tried Allegra and noticed an improvement.

Thanks @bcla for mentioning the side effects of the medicine! I tried to take another 1/3 of the 180, to get to an adult dose 6 hrs after the first 1/3 and got a tremor in my pinky and I knew what it was right away because of bcla. Won't be doing that again. It's probably best to go with a teeny tiny dose. I have found that 1/3 of the 180, so the kids dose of 60, is more than enough to help feel a million times better clear up until night time. I wouldn't mix it with prescribed stuff though, I'm not on anything like biologics and wouldn't try this if I was unless a Dr said to do so.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8157820/

 

[DLgal]

They checked me for this via blood and it was negative but I totally feel worse with wheat, I am supposed to have this soon and am now wondering if there will be a screening in the endoscopy.

Part of the reason for the endoscopy is to check for signs of inflammation. The doctor will do this automatically, and will likely also take a tissue sample from the duodenum and biopsy it as a final check. They don't rely solely on the blood test to rule out celiac. You shouldn't have to mention that you'd like to have this done, it's just sort of part of the endoscopy when they are investigating digestive issues.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Well, this is interesting too & off I go down the rabbit hole

https://www.news-medical.net/news/2006/02/17/16030.aspx

Hmmm, the thing that is most noticeable is that my joints that usually hurt most actually feel looser and appear less swollen. How odd I stumbled into this from an allergic reaction feeling very grateful but it's a bit trippy.

 

[DLgal]

Well, this is interesting too & off I go down the rabbit hole

https://www.news-medical.net/news/2006/02/17/16030.aspx

Hmmm, the thing that is most noticeable is that my joints that usually hurt most actually feel looser and appear less swollen. How odd I stumbled into this from an allergic reaction feeling very grateful but it's a bit trippy.

Interesting, and probably part of the reason why cold weather is so hard on people with arthritis. Cold temperatures stimulate the release of histamine, which apparently results in this inflammation in autoimmune arthritis.

 

[LuvOrlando]

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11472682/

Found this NIH article mentioning the same thing I noticed. I wonder if anyone on here has tried it and felt any improvement?

No celiac or any other explanation for me, I don't have anything people would call allergies. Getting scoped again later this week but there has never been much thought of celiac or anything similar.

 

[PollyannaMom]

Fexofenadine (Allegra) is generally safe to take every day, but I have a problem taking the 24 hour (180 mg) dose so I split the pills/caplets. I got tremors when I was taking 180 mg. It's not precise, but close enough and years ago a pharmacist said it was OK since I wasn't taking more than the maximum dose and it wasn't time release. But ideally I'd buy the 60 mg 12 hour dose except that it's harder to find and often more expensive than the 180 mg generic dose in bulk.

I cut the 180s in half as well (for allergies). It's easier for me because I can get them in a bottle, but the smaller dose here only seems to be on those bubble-cards that are hard to open.

The arthritis connection is fascinating, though!

 

[LuvOrlando]

I cut the 180s in half as well (for allergies). It's easier for me because I can get them in a bottle, but the smaller dose here only seems to be on those bubble-cards that are hard to open.

The arthritis connection is fascinating, though!

Isn't it?

I do a lot of reading and it seems that compounds get researched for all sorts of reasons and once they have a hit and can make money there is a patent and no-one seems to dig any further. This is probably due to infringements and the manufacturer likely has no reason to bother looking because research is an expensive potential loss.

There needs to be a special category of permissive use for alternative disease states to open up research in the publics interests, even though it isn't worth it for the big companies the smaller ones shouldn't be shut out when they could easily discover life altering uses. I'm 100% all for a business making money and such but not if it is all or nothing where a business can leave a medical intervention on the shelf to shrivel and hurting humanities best interests simply because they can't be bothered. It seems humans need to intervene and create low threshold inroads for small startups to investigate patented medications and such if it could bring down costs and viable care to the poorest parts of the world.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articl...r processes,infringement in the United States.

 

[bcla]

I cut the 180s in half as well (for allergies). It's easier for me because I can get them in a bottle, but the smaller dose here only seems to be on those bubble-cards that are hard to open.

The arthritis connection is fascinating, though!

I've since bought the 60 mg/12 hour dose from Amazon. They have the 120 and 200 caplet sizes of the HealthA2Z brand in bottles. Their math is off on the per count price of the 200 size, which should be about 7.5 cents each at the current price of $15.25.

https://www.amazon.com/HealthA2Z®-Fexofenadine-Hydrochloride-Antihistamine-Non-Drowsy/dp/B0BLW8DJKB/

 

[PollyannaMom]

I've since bought the 60 mg/12 hour dose from Amazon. They have the 120 and 200 caplet sizes of the HealthA2Z brand in bottles. Their math is off on the per count price of the 200 size, which should be about 7.5 cents each at the current price of $15.25.

https://www.amazon.com/HealthA2Z®-Fexofenadine-Hydrochloride-Antihistamine-Non-Drowsy/dp/B0BLW8DJKB/

Thanks!

 

[LuvOrlando]

I've since bought the 60 mg/12 hour dose from Amazon. They have the 120 and 200 caplet sizes of the HealthA2Z brand in bottles. Their math is off on the per count price of the 200 size, which should be about 7.5 cents each at the current price of $15.25.

https://www.amazon.com/HealthA2Z®-Fexofenadine-Hydrochloride-Antihistamine-Non-Drowsy/dp/B0BLW8DJKB/

Do you happen to notice any improvement with arthritis or any other kind of joint issues?

 

[LuvOrlando]

I cut the 180s in half as well (for allergies). It's easier for me because I can get them in a bottle, but the smaller dose here only seems to be on those bubble-cards that are hard to open.

The arthritis connection is fascinating, though!

Do you ever notice any kind of improvement with arthritis or any other joint issues?

I wonder if it is a thing other people wouldn't notice because their discomfort is fleeting and for me it was such a shocking difference because it is so overwhelming?

 

[DVCjj]

Interesting thread. I have autoimmune arthritis (RA) which causes me serious grief sometimes. I do take Pepcid Complete (Dr advice) for acid reflux often and occasional Benadryl (for another goofy autoimmune disorder).

I hadn't been paying attention to when the RA flares are better with those drugs but after reading this thread, I definitely will be more mindful so I thank you for responding with your own experiences.

I've only had RA for 4 years (and I'm old) but I'm getting sick & tired of the pain.
Next step Dr. said is Biologic infusions, which I despise even thinking about. I already hate the very serious Methotrexate I'm on. If the disease doesn't kill you, the drugs to help the disease will. Sorry...it's been a discouraging day after latest Rheumatology appt today.

Thanks for the thread. Helped me knowing I'm not alone.

 

[WDWEPCOT]

I may me way off on this but it seems to run in my family we made too much histamine which causes us to break out in hives in my darling daughter has it worse than I do and the doctor had told her to take large quantities of Pepcid along with Zantac and that worked really well for her in the hives department and she could go out in the sun again and not just break out a mass of hives and instantaneously but that isn’t all of her problems because she also has body wide aches and pains which I think is related to making too much histamine and I have always had the body wide aches and pains and it’s starting to show up that I have RA and I think it’s related to making too much histamine and I think the RA just goes along with some of the other auto immune diseases that I already have
I find all this information that I’ve been reading in this thread extremely interesting and makes me want to research this some more thank you for sharing all of this
I will say I’ve been on Allegra for over 30 years and I can’t say I’ve gotten any relief from it and I keep asking my doctor for a stronger does and he keeps telling me I’m on the strongest dose they just doesn’t seem to do anything if you ask me I’ve tried other brands but they don’t work well for me I’ve been on a prescription for an acid for probably a decade now
The only thing I found to relieve my pain has been acupuncture I do wish my insurance would cover it because I found it to be massively helpful and relieving all my pain for at least three weeks
I wish you all good luck

 

[bcla]

Do you happen to notice any improvement with arthritis or any other kind of joint issues?

I don't have arthritis per se. I do have a previously dislocated joint that's occasionally arthritic, but I wouldn't know if using an antihistamine helps. Nonsedating antihistamines aren't particularly effective compared to sedating antihistamines, but obviously sedation is a massive side effect.

 

[PollyannaMom]

Do you happen to notice any improvement with arthritis or any other kind of joint issues?

I don't have any diagnosed joint issues (yet - I'm only in my 50's) but since reading this thread I've wondered if some minor stiffness that I was attributing to cold weather or "sitting too long with cat on lap" was actually related to having switched from brand-name Allegra to generic last time I bought it. Nothing I'd call hard data, though.

 

[LuvOrlando]

I don't have arthritis per se. I do have a previously dislocated joint that's occasionally arthritic, but I wouldn't know if using an antihistamine helps. Nonsedating antihistamines aren't particularly effective compared to sedating antihistamines, but obviously sedation is a massive side effect.

I think it is the JAK inhibitor side effect that works for the arthritis, although I also notice a decrease in swelling in a general way and shrinking of irritated bursa so it may also be less stress from diminished swelling pressure on the joints that helps.

 

[LuvOrlando]

I don't have any diagnosed joint issues (yet - I'm only in my 50's) but since reading this thread I've wondered if some minor stiffness that I was attributing to cold weather or "sitting too long with cat on lap" was actually related to having switched from brand-name Allegra to generic last time I bought it. Nothing I'd call hard data, though.

Same age but autoimmune issues fast track things. The cat on lap is cute, when my pains first started I attributed it to tight compression socks, then my purse was too big for a long time there was always a thing I could point at but the pain became so disproportionate there came a time I couldn't ignore it. I do use the brand, I get it from Walmart online because I can't find the small dose tablet on the shelf anywhere. I only take it every 3 days so it lasts a long time for me.

 

[DVCjj]

Interesting, and probably part of the reason why cold weather is so hard on people with arthritis. Cold temperatures stimulate the release of histamine, which apparently results in this inflammation in autoimmune arthritis.

Cold weather is horrible for my RA and the reason I am leaving for FL for 3 months. (live in freezing Midwest). My husband is not crazy about leaving for 3 months, let alone FL, but feels very bad I'm fighting so much pain. Definitely feels better South. Not perfect, but much less flares. I'm very interested in the Histamine theory.
I do have another dumb autoimmune disorder for many years called angioedema. My (hives under the skin...not the normal ones). Started under my feet many years ago and have progressed to around eyes. So upsetting to me. The instant...and I mean instant...I feel an attack coming on I take Benadryl. Now I'm going to be alert to whether it seems to have any impact on an RA flare also.

Thanks to you all for this discussion. Means a lot to me.