Dr. Shoemaker's Questran (cholestyramine) treatment

[Guest guest]

I read here daily but rarely post because I have more questions than answers.

Now I have a

treatment question for all the knowledgeable members of this group:

Has anyone had experience with a treatment for biotoxin illnesses (including

Lyme,

autism, MS, CFS, fibromyalgia, etc.) using cholestyramine? Apparently this is

from Dr.

Ritchie Shoemaker's book Mold Warriors (we are awaiting it from Amazon), and my

brilliant doctor has arrived at this strategy to treat Lyme and autism in my

family.

His explanation was that " biotoxin illness " is an underlying theory for most of

these

diagnoses, and that people's bodies cannot inactivate the toxins even if they go

after the

infections. So, we can treat symptoms, treat systemic problems like

yeast/bacteria/viruses/etc., but we continue to see illness because the toxins

persist.

Cholestyramine has been around since the 60s, and was created as a

cholesterol-lowering

drug. Apparently, it is also effective in acting like a sponge for toxins and

carrying them

out through the bowel. I can't adequately condense the information, but I will

include a

link that explains it clearly:

http://www.ei-resource.org/articles/chronic-fatigue-syndrome-articles/neurotoxin\

s-

%11-treatment-information-sheet/

Our doctor presented this to me after months of research. He has been seeing my

son

(autism, likely Lyme) for 2 years and me (Lyme, CFS) for a year, and he thinks

this is our

best strategy for treatment. Thus far, every consultation I've had with him has

been for

either me or for my son. I was impressed that he tied us together this time, and

I'm

intrigued by the idea.

I had one concern, which was the fact that both my son and I have low

cholesterol, and

this is a cholesterol-lowering drug. He explained that it would be short term

use, in cycles

if necessary, and that some side effects would be tolerable if we were able to

solve our

overall problem by removing toxins.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Ingrid