Over-the-counter antihistamine, Tavist, being tested

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vw35qrt
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Over-the-counter antihistamine, Tavist, being tested

Post by vw35qrt »

http://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT02040298

Is anyone taking this over the counter antihistamine and seeing any improvement in their symptoms?
ribeye
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Re: Over-the-counter antihistamine, Tavist, being tested

Post by ribeye »

No one carries generic or tavist around my area. I used to take it 30 years ago for hay fever. Seems the newer Allegra and zyrtec and older benedryl allergy meds have taken more shelf space at stores. Anyone seen it lately?
David1951
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Re: Over-the-counter antihistamine, Tavist, being tested

Post by David1951 »

Try low dose Benadryl. Many have seen dramatic improvement taking 1 mg per 30 to 50 lbs of body weight 4 times per day at meal and bed times.

Low dose Benadryl has the added benefit of inhibiting excessive or premature cell death and degranulation.

I have been testing this therapy on a number of disorders including MS for the last 2 years....

some of the feedback can be seen here:

http://www.spacedoc.com/board/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2915

MS feedback is the third post

David
GilesCorey
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Re: Over-the-counter antihistamine, Tavist, being tested

Post by GilesCorey »

Been taking clemastine fumarate ~5mg at night for the past two weeks.

First week or so was fine. Over the past week however I have experienced crippling fatigue the likes of which I have never experienced before (sleeping 14 hours a day and tired during the day). I have fatigue from MS but not on this level. It really does feel like I am constantly on benadryl. The half life of clemastine is fairly high (~21 hrs) so I expect it is a side effect of the anti-histamine building up in my system. It could also be another attack but I dont really suspect so. Caffene and modafinil no longer work as effectively as they used to which would be expected from a histamine blocker. I have stopped taking clemastine regularly and will report back in a couple days.
ElliotB
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Re: Over-the-counter antihistamine, Tavist, being tested

Post by ElliotB »

I attended a MS Society sponsored seminar and the speaker was Dr. Jonah R. Chan. He is one of the leading doctors doing research on Clemastine Fumarate.

The research being done with regard to remylination, indicates that Clemastine Fumarate may help in accelerating the remylination process. They are in the middle of trials at this point and expect results to be published within 6 months.

I don't think you would necessarily feel better over the short term taking Tavist (Clemastine Fumarate). And there was no indication that Clemastine Fumarate changes disease progression. Another issue that would need to be addressed if Clemastine Fumarate is found to be effective in stimulating remylination is that Clemastine Fumarate causes drowsiness.
zjac020
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Re: Over-the-counter antihistamine, Tavist, being tested

Post by zjac020 »

So..we now have results of this test out...any opinions?
ElliotB
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Re: Over-the-counter antihistamine, Tavist, being tested

Post by ElliotB »

"So..we now have results of this test out...any opinions?"

Can you share a link to those results please?
ElliotB
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Re: Over-the-counter antihistamine, Tavist, being tested

Post by ElliotB »

Thanks for the link but that is a 'fluff' article and not a clinical trial, so my opinion remains unchanged - at this time there is little evidence that Tavist is a or THE solution and the fact that its use induces sleepiness in most users makes it an unfavorable choice for pwMS - I for one am tired enough but of course would tolerate it for a time IF it worked.
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zen2010
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Re: Over-the-counter antihistamine, Tavist, being tested

Post by zen2010 »

I will try Clemastine Fumarate

It's not available in France, but you can easily buy it on line from US

I will start at 2.68 mg before going to bed.

After a few days, I will jump to 2.68 mg *3

But if I face important sleepiness, I'll stop right away.
Marc70
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Re: Over-the-counter antihistamine, Tavist, being tested

Post by Marc70 »

ElliotB wrote:"So..we now have results of this test out...any opinions?"

Can you share a link to those results please?
Try this:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29029896

I wonder: So 50 patients tried a massive dose (2 x of what's usually prescribed) for 3 months and complained that they were fatigued. Was this surprising?
Will those experiencing fatigue now be ready to take the drug long-term or would a pulse treatment work too?

What's next? Expecting multiple repeat studies before this drug can be prescribed off-label as the 5.36mg dose used in the trial.

BTW: No one in the trial reported improvements. It was measured via latency measurements. Given the trial size, are these results then even clinically meaningful?
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