Diet and Health FAQ

Tagged As: Medication For Ulcerative Colitis

Question:
I have Hashimoto's (hypo on full replacement) and I was just diagnosed with ulcerative colitis (one form of inflammatory bowel disease - possibly another autoimmune disorder) as well. I was just wondering how many other people on this list have this combination (or Crohn's)? I'm taking mesalazine (Asacol in the States I think, Mesasal here in Australia) and I got weird 'side-effects' which turned out to be hyper symptoms (palpitations, difficulty breathing, tension and insomnia) that were masked by hypo and bowel symptoms so it was a bit hard to see it first; now I have to reduce my T4-T3 combo as the other medication seems to interact. This is not stated anywhere, either on labels of either medication, on sites of either condition or by any of my doctors! In fact no-one seems to know about this and I'm certain it's happening! Does anyone know about this interaction?

Answer:
I'm pretty much in the same boat as you. I had to stop taking the Asacol 'cause it was causing me to be sick, the same for Flagyl. I have a few other complications going on at the moment but I think you can best get answers to you questions their as they are as nice a group of people on that group as here and very prolific writers. Crohn's and Ulcerative Colitis are autoimmune related, it is quite possible for you to have either, and imagine it is possible to have both. Both are treatable, only one is curable with surgery. While it is true that the side effect you report is not listed specifically related to thyroid (things you list ARE mentioned at places like www.rxlist.com), it should not have been a difficult thing to figure out. I mean, if I can...they should have, too. First, they should have found out what the chemical was; mesalamine is an amino-salicylate. It *is* stated that people sensitive to salicylates should not use the drug. Now, here's where it becomes a thyroid thing: Salicylates compete actively for the same binding proteins as the thyroid hormones = the free fractions for both T4 and T3 increase rather dramatically = effectively making you hyperthyroid on your fixed dosage of replacement hormone. Intact function would have responded by decreasing the output from the thyroid, and that is exactly what you discovered, you need to reduce the dosage of your combo while you are on this drug. THAT answered a quandary for me. I had been taking Asacol and my BP and pulse went pretty high for me until I quit it. Normally, I have a pulse like a metronome and rock steady BP.