Zetia and IBS/UC/Crohn's

[Clouseau57]

Has anyone experienced the onset of Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Ulcerative Colitis or Crohn's disease after taking, and maintaining Zetia intake? How about Vytorin?

[IBS-D]

I was a healthy 37 yr old with no health issues except for high chloresterol. My doctor perscibed Vytorin 10/20. Thats where my health began to decline. Every morning I would have explosive diarrhea and immediately after meals. At first I thought it was my diet never associated it with the Vytorin so I continually change what I was eating. Even after having chicken and rice I would have diarrhea!!! I went from 205 lbs to 170 lbs within a couple of months ( from the daily diarrhea). It was affecting my work and I wouldnt leave the house on my days off for fear of an uncontroled bowel movement. I finally went back to the doctor after about a year and he said he never heard of that side affect. I stopped taking the Vytorin and he diagnosed me with IBS. Now I'm on a SSRI to aleave some of the anxiety and cramping associated with IBS.

[Allen1]

Hi there IBS-D,

sorry to see you are another statin victim like the rest of us, however welcome to the forum and I hope your symptoms ease up and things get back to some sort of normality. According to the site I mention below, up to 5 percent of the vytorin takers suffered from diarrhoea.

(remove the * and paste the rest in the address bar)
*http://cholesterol.emedtv.com/vytorin/vytorin-side-effects.html

Most of the folk here were taking Simvastatin or Lipitor or other Statins whereas you were taking a combination of ezetimibe/simvastatin which is Vytorin. Ordinarily I would say that taking Co-Enzyme Q10 and L-Carnitine plus vitamin D and vitamin B complex etc would assist with muscle cramping and pain, however with IBS I don't know what would be helpful.

The chances are that your body is not getting all the goodness out of the food you eat as it travels so fast through your system, maybe using low dose multivitamins a couple of times a day would be beneficial, I would ask your doctor what he thinks as you don't want to take something that agitates the physical problem, and he may have a more absorb-able or less reactive solution if it is found that you are not getting what you need from food itself.

I would think that many of us have experienced severe bouts of diarrhoea which may have been due to medication or something we ate or tummy bugs etc. That was or would have been bad enough but at least for us it goes away, lets hope that things settle down for you and as I mentioned, you get some normality back.

All the best,
Allen.

[IBS-D]

Thank you Allen for your concerns. I will say the explosive diarrhea after meals stopped as soon as I stopped the Vytorin. The only thing I am dealing with now is the every morning diarrhea and cramps during the day. Again, never had this problem before starting Vytorin. I've been off it for awhile now with no improvment with my morning issues. Dr. put me on a SSRI like Lexipro to help me deal with the anxiety from my constant diarrhea. It has helped some. Dr. believes it is IBS I have and is just a coincidence and has nothing to do with the Vytorin. I dont agree. I never had any bowel issues before the start of a statin. I also found a post on another Med website of a gentleman who was also dianosed with IBS after taking Vytorin. I'll post it below.

"Originally Posted by Hazel100
I switched from Zocor to Vytorin around Oct 2004. Zocor no longer worked for me.
Around the first of March, I began experiencing a lot of lower abdominal pain and flu-like symptoms for several days. The last day of what turned out to be the first episode, my left leg became useless. A month later, I had similar symptoms. This time, at 8:45 a.m., I checked my blood sugar and blood pressure. Both were around 180. A few days later, both returned to normal. Though I did not have any unusual bowel problems during these episodes, I had begun having very bad diarrhea 24/7, and at times, explosive diarrhea that came on without much warning. My doctor told me to stop taking Vytorin for two weeks, then get back on. I went to a new family doctor about my "episodes" and told him of the diarrhea. as well as everything else that had happened. He advised me to stop taking it immediately and to tell my endocrinologist what was happening.
After having a colonoscopy, I have now been diagnosed as having irritable bowel syndrome. However, I am certain I was experiencing the serious side affects from Vytorin.
Do you think these side effects caused me to have irritable bowel syndrome? Will this go away in time? I'm quite old to begin having IBS--69 1/2. Thank God for enzyme pills or I would be housebound."

[Allen1]

Hi there IBS-D,

I remember reading a post on this site that mentions that there either is or maybe could be a link to Statins for the want of a better description, activating dormant health issues. These issues may never have become a problem for many people but statins seem to trigger those problems, that may be what has happened with you and Hazel100. I believe it is a case that Statins deplete and weaken enough cells etc to give any underling issues a chance to flourish, this goes for both physical and mental problems as in mood swings, forgetting names, depression and ALS etc.

Statins sure are poison and it seems that like the rest of us here you have also found out the hard way. My poison was Zocor which is Simvastatin, that has left me with quite a few problems including mental alertness, I can't believe that these drugs are still in use.

All the best,
Allen.