Zyrtec/Atarax

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone, I just read about someone's doctor being concerned about side

effects of Zyrtec if taking more than one 10mg. per day. Here is what my

derm told me.

-Zyrtec has been tested to be safe at up to SIX 10mg. tabs a day!

-Zyrtec will stay active in your system for at LEAST 8 hours (pretty sure he

said 8, could have said 10). Anyway, hey, this sure falls far short of once

a 24 hour day!

-Zyrtec is made from Atarax.(a derivative or metabolite or such of Atarax).

I take 2 to 3 Zyrtec daily in addition to my Zyflo, though without Zyflo, the

Zyrtec does nothing. (I have NO angioedema while taking the Zyflo.) When I

asked about taking just 10 mg. of Atarax at bedtime (instead of the 10 mg. of

amytriptilene which I take to help me sleep), thinking that would be better

since it was also an antihistamine, he said it would be better and explained

that it takes about 25mg of atarax to yield about 10mg equivalent of Zyrtec.

-How many of us have had 50-60-70 and more atarax prescribed?? This seems to

be generally acceptable, so at the equivalent rate of 25/10, seems like

taking 20-30mg zyrtec might be no big deal. Of course, there could be other

considerations that we don't know about, but it seems to fit in with the

studies on Zyrtec dosage safety.

-Atarax is practically free compared to the cost of Zyrtec.

-Atarax will definitely make you sleepy, Zrytec usually doesn't. Sometimes I

think Zyrtec does makes me just a little sleepy between about 1 to 2 hours

after I take it if I take 1.5 or 2 tablets at once, but then the sleepiness

goes away if I don't lay down.

-Most people will build up tolerance to the sleepy feeling from atarax and

adapt, but it can take a couple weeks or more, and I'm not sure if we really

try for that long. After all, we do still have to function during that time

of tolerance build up. We can't just go to sleep for several week. But

maybe we could try a little harder.

-The doctors don't seem to hesitate to increase doses of other antihistamine,

atarax, doxepin, benedryl...., Zyrtec is nothing so different.

-I'm still pushing the idea of trying Zyflo. It has changed my life. Even

though it doesn't work for everyone, if you were to be one of the lucky ones,

just imagine, no more angioedema. To me, it has been a miracle.

-Anyway, you have lot's of backup to push for more than 10mg of Zyrtec a day.

Almost everyone here takes more than that. Lots of people have had relief

from hives when they increased their dose of antihistamine.

-Remember, the best thing to do with antihistamines is to take them

regularly-even when you have a lull in the hives. The histamine receptors

must already be blocked by the antihistamines when your mast cells and

basophils release their histamine, so the histamine has no place to lock into

and cause their trouble. If receptors are available when you release

histamine, you'll get the hives. If you take the antihistamine AFTERWARD,

the histamine has already bound to the histamine receptors and it's too late.

-Good luck getting the increase on your Zyrtec.

-I'm still here if anyone wants to ask about Zyflo. I saw my doc yesterday

and they are trying to find what the common factors are in the subset of

patients that respond to the Zyflo treatment. I is still driving me mad that

more people don't know of it or are not offered the chance to try it. There

is a lot of suffering going on here. Until Zyflo, my only option for relief

was prednisone, and we all know about that. I see there are a couple of new

people on the list now that suffer from angioedema, seemingly pressure

related, similar to my case.

Carole Garner