Cholestyramine Question

[Spsmyth1919]

Hi all. Today I started my phase 1 elimination diet. I suspect I also have BAM, so I had my GI prescribe me Cholestyramine. I know that people can go through the phase 1 diet and still deal with WD because bile acid malabsorption (BAM, treated by Cholestyramine) isn't addressed, thus why I wanted to combine the diet and medication together as a part of my (hopeful) path to my version of remission. However, when I picked up the Cholestyramine today I noticed that it's orange flavored and contains sucrose, likely food dyes and other artificial ingredients as well. That was a bummer to see! On the elimination diet I'm eating like a total of 8-10 different foods with no additives.

So my question is: Do people still have success on the elimination diet while taking a flavored Cholestyramine? I could see if my GI can prescribe a Cholestyramine brand with no artificial sweeteners/dyes. Or, should I just try the elimination diet, see if that works, and if it doesn't after 6 months try to get my hands on a Cholestyramine brand with no additives? I really wanted to throw everything at this MC all at once, so that I can avoid 6 months of restrictive dieting that doesn't start to resolve the MC because I also needed to be taking Cholestyramine at the same time. Thanks to any who can help!

[tex]

Good question. I'm not sure that's ever been discussed here before. If it were me, I would do the elimination diet first, while skipping the cholestyramine. And if I don't see significant improvement in about 3 months, I would consider adding the cholestyramine. Here's why: when you do the diet while including suspect ingredients, if you aren't able to reach remission within a reasonable length of time, you haven't learned certain very important facts. For example, you haven't learned whether the ingredients in the cholestyramine are preventing you from reaching remission, or something else is the problem. And if you do reach remission, then you will wonder if the cholestyramine was the reason, or if you would have reached remission without it (Meaning that you don't need the cholestyramine to remain in remission.

In other words, this is part of the basic rule that when we're testing ingredients or foods that we want to add to our diet, we should only test one food (or ingredient) at a time, because if the test fails, we won't know which food caused the problem, So we learned nothing from the process. At least, those are my thoughts. But maybe someone here who has been there and done that will respond.

Tex

[Spsmyth1919]

Thanks Tex, that makes sense. Having a timeframe really helps, too. MC requires nothing if not endless patience. I'll stick with elimination phase 1 diet for 3 months and reassess. I can use that time to research Cholestyramine brands without all the additives in case I need to go that route. Much appreciated!