Non-glutenfree Medicine

[domineske]

My daughter's family doctor prescribed her medicine yesterday, and when I asked him if I had to check whether it was gluten-free or whether he had already checked, he said that he had never heard of any medicines containing gluten.

Does anybody know of some examples I could give him?

[KaitiUSA]

There are tons of medicines that do contain gluten so you do always have to check. Off the top of my head I know that Tums is not gluten free and there are other things too so he obviously is not up on the know of what can contain gluten. EVERYTHING pretty much can contain gluten so it all needs to be checked.

If you have the Delphi List that has a section on medications so you can check up on what was prescribed to your daughter and see if it is gluten free before giving it to her.

[hez]

For example alot of antibiotics have gluten. Of course I cannot remember which ones, sorry.

[tarnalberry]

  hez said:

For example alot of antibiotics have gluten.  Of course I cannot remember which ones, sorry.

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The checking up on them that I have done has not shown a lot of antibiotics to contain gluten. I still haven't found a prescription med that does contain gluten, but I don't doubt there are some out there. Unless you've seen it confirmed, do check.

[skbird]

I'm chiming in on the Tums. I wouldn't have known from the label, and only found out after I posted here, but I was getting sick from taking it. Was horrible.

Stephanie

[Kasey'sMom]

I had to get an antibiotic filled for my dd last week. Unfortuately the Phar. didn't know if it contained gluten or not. While they were filling the prescription I ran home and double checked.

She did mention that a lady with breast cancer was not able to take a medicine that she had filled for her because it contained gluten.

Here's a couple of sites I found to check gluten-free med's......

Open Original Shared Link

homepage.mac.com/sholland/celiac/GFmedlist.pdf

[Jen H]

As for over the counter drugs, I know that the children's liquid claratin and Robitussin severe congestion gel caplets are both gluten-free. I'm not sure if your daughter has a cold, but these both helped me.

Jen

[celiac3270]

Gas-X (one kind of it) contains wheat

[ravenwoodglass]

  Kasey said:

I had to get an antibiotic filled for my dd last week. Unfortuately the Phar. didn't know if it contained gluten or not. While they were filling the prescription I ran home and double checked.

She did mention that a lady with breast cancer was not able to take a medicine that she had filled for her because it contained gluten.

Here's a couple of sites I found to check gluten-free med's......

Open Original Shared Link

homepage.mac.com/sholland/celiac/GFmedlist.pdf

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You need to find another pharmacy and tell the owner why. Your pharmacist is a DOCTOR it is his or hers responsibility to find out if the medication they are about to give you will poison you. I have found the biggest gluten risk with the generics, those seem to be compounded with whatever is cheapest.

[skbird]

I've been to several pharmacies and none of them knew easily if a drug had gluten in it. Several have been very helpful and dug up the info sheet and we've inspected it together, and some have called, as well. The doctor part doesn't impress me, hardly any of the doctors I've been to know diddly about gluten, it seems.

Stephanie

[Guest BERNESES]

Ditto on the generics! I say no more generics for me. I have been glutened by MANY medications- let's see a generic Augmentin (antibiotic), Provigil, a generic anti-anxiety medicine, I could go on forever about this- it's my biggest pet peeve. Some companies many a policy not to use gluten in any of their products (I think Forest Phram. is one) but many have no clue because they don't know where their fillers come from. It's ridiculous! I won't take any medication until I've verified with the company. And really- it's not the pharmacit's fault as a list may say no ingredients but since the list was printed, the fillers may have changed.

Does anyone know if this will change in 2006 when the labeling law goes into effect?

I know Canadian Karen said there are only 2-3 drugs in Canada that contain gluten! What is the US thinking???? ARRRGGGGHHHH

[Kasey'sMom]

This is what happened with my dd's medicine. The pharm. said that she had contacted the drug company for someone else and they didn't know about their fillers. I made the coment that I didn't want to give her something that would give her diarrhea and damage her intestines. She responded by saying she'll probably get diarrhea anyway. Not really comforting to someone with a sick baby!! One of the medicines was gluten-free and she was able to tell me about it.

[lovegrov]

There are NOT tons of medications with gluten. There are, in fact, very, very few, particularly among prescription drugs. Antibiotics are either all gluten-free, or very nearly so.

I'm not telling anybody not to check (call the company yourself), but in reality medications are generally safer than going out to eat and probably safer than your average processed food that isn't supposed to have gluten.

richard

[Canadian Karen]

I remember a thread a while back that the makers of budesonide in the U.S. will not guarantee their medication to be gluten free (it is guaranteed gluten free in Canada, made by same company). Something about not being able to guarantee whether the filler will be wheat based or corn based.....

Budesonide is a mild steriod (used for collagenous colitis, among other things, I am sure......)

Oh, and the Gax-X celiac3270 was talking about, the chewable form contains gluten. The gel ones are okay.

Karen

[Guest BERNESES]

Richard- I have NOT found that to be the case. In fact, many times when I've called companies (generic and otherwise) they will NOT guarantee their products to be gluten-free as they cannot guarantee where their fillers come from. I have gotten ill from a variety of medications (prescription) and each time I have called the company reps have told me that in most cases they're not even sure where their fillers come from. The only ones I've talked to so far that guarantee their products to be gluten-free are Forrest and Teva. Generic companies can be even worse in my experience. I would ALWAYS call. Some of us get very sick from even minute amounts of gluten and I don't think you should discourage people from checking and double checking.

[lovegrov]

When a company tells you they cannot "guarantee" their medication, this is nothing more than a CYA legal statement. Kraft doesn't "guarantee" its products. Do you eat any of them? Neither does General Mills. When you eat out, no restaurant "guarantees" its food. Heck, neither do most of the companies that make gluten-free specialty foods. Why do people seem to think a company that manuifactures medications shopuld "guarantee." The only reason these companies mention the word "guarantee" is because their lawyers tell them to because Americans are so lawsuit-happy when it comes to anything medical.

The companies I have talked to have NOT said they don't know what's in their fillers or they don't know where they come from. Basically what they have said is we don't make these fillers ourselves and we're not standing there every second they're being made, so we're not going to "guarantee" anything. Virtually every company I've talked to has been glad to tell me that gluten is NOT in the formula -- and believe me, regulations require them know what's in a formula, even if it's a filler.

Medications are pretty highly regulated. The rules about CC are much higher than for foods. Imagine if there was CC of an antibiotic into a non-antibiotic, and then somebody allergic to antibiotics took one.

If you look again at my post you'll see that I said people SHOULD call and ask about medications. I was NOT discouraging anybody from doing so. I was, however, trying to point out that statements like "there are tons of medicines that do contain gluten" and "a lot of antibiotics have gluten" simply are not true.

richard

[Guest BERNESES]

Richard- As I said, that has not been my experience. I have found on many occasions that companies will state that they do not know their fillers and their fillers and the companies from which they obtain them change frequently; therefore, they may contain gluten.

The CYA policy is there for a reason (and no- I don 't eat Kraft products as I am too sensitive to take the chance). It's to protect them and also for you to take as a "Take at your own risk" warning.

I just think that people should hear everyone's experiences. If yours have been good, then tell us about them. If mine have been bad, I want people to know too so they can avoid making the same mistakes I have. Let's not argue about this- we are both on this board to help people and ourselves.

[Guest BERNESES]

I just found a link to the Wheaton Celiac Support Group gluten-free drug list. I'm posting it here, but I'm wondering if anyone knows how reliable it is:

Open Original Shared Link

Also it says the following companies will guarantee their drugs to be gluten-free:

Abbott Labs

Apothecon

Carlson Vitamins

C.B. Fleet

Danbury

Dista

Eli Lilly

Forest

Freeda

Jacobus

Kirkman

Merck

M.G.I. Pharma

Morton Grove Pharm

Nephron

Novopharm

Pfizer Pharma

Rhone

Ross

Roxanne

Scandipharm

Schwarz

Solgar

Syntex

Toms of Maine

Vitaline

VitaminShoppe

Wyeth-Ayerst

[lovegrov]

Please tell us which companies have told you they don't know what's in their fillers. I've never been told this by a pharmaceutical company so I need your list to check them out. If they give me the same response, I'll then check out whether this is allowed. If not, I'll report them to the FDA.

The list of companies you found is not a list of companies that will "guarantee" their medications are gluten-free. It's a list of companies that are still willing to leave off the CYA or that actually do test their products. The document says they are "Companies that have a policy of producing gluten free products or claim that all of their drug or vitamin products are gluten free." "Claim" is not the same as guaranteeing anything. I'm not arguing with you about this -- just pointing out the difference.

richard

[Guest BERNESES]

Glaxo Smith Kline was one.

[grantschoep]

  BERNESES said:

Glaxo Smith Kline was one.

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Interesting. I was on tons of meds this summer due to my open heart surgery, and subsequent complications. I had checked on every drug, generics. The only drug I was talking that had gluten in it was one called Zofran... by non other than Glaxo Smith Kline. It really sucked as in the hospital, I got the IV version, no gluten. It was great. It basically makes nausea disseapear in a few seconds(i.e. the I.V. version). So when I went home I thought, cool! If I get glutened, I will take a Zofran pill, they are supposed to work really quick as they dissolve in your mouth.

About a week later, I felt really sick, took a Zofran, and was sicker than a dog. The pill form is made largely from wheat, I guess its something to help it disolve/absorb fast on your tongue...

Anyways. I just found it almost funny, in a sick(pun) way, that a drug I thought would "cure" the side effects dumped me worse.

-grant

[Guest BERNESES]

Grant- I LOVE you avatar! So great. Yeah- I've had a lot of problems with GSK. Been unable to get a straight answer out of them on too many occasions,I'm sorry you had this experience, especially after open heart surgery- Yikes!

[lovegrov]

I just called Glaxo Smith Kline and spoke with an RN who answered. Although I don't need either of these products, I asked about Augmentin XR and the Zofran orally disintegrating tablets. I have called them in the past about Zantac. I was prepared to do battle but it wasn't necessary because I got a very straight-forward answer.

Wheat, rye, barley and oats are not a part of the formulation for ANY GSK prescription product. All of their starches come from wood, corn or potato. Nothing else. Everything they make is intended to be gluten-free, which means there's no contamination chance inside the plant. However, they cannot guarantee that there won't ever be some minute amount of contamination in some ingredient provided by an outside supplier. As I've said before, this is the standard CYA statement. It might be frustrating to hear, but it's really the most honest answer any manufacturer can give you.

Grant, I can't say why the Zofran made you sick but here's the inactive ingredients. No wheat here: Each ZOFRAN ODT Tablet also contains the inactive ingredients aspartame, gelatin, mannitol, methylparaben sodium, propylparaben sodium, and strawberry flavor.

richard

[skbird]

This is interesting - I was looking around on the web to find out about the ingredients in zofran odt and found this, that describes all forms of the drug. Wonder why they say the tablet form is gluten free in both strengths but don't make a distinction with the orally discintegrating version?

  Quote

Information for the Patient: See Blue Section--Information for the Patient Zofran/Zofran ODT.

Supplied: Injection: Each mL contains: ondansetron 2 mg/mL (as hydrochloride dihydrate) for i.v. use. Nonmedicinal ingredients: citric acid monohydrate, methyl- and propylparaben (vials only), sodium citrate and sodium chloride. Ampuls of 2 mL (4 mg) and 4 mL (8 mg). Boxes of 5. Vials of 20 mL (40 mg), packed in individual cartons.

Oral Solution: Each 5 mL contains: ondansetron 4 mg (as hydrochloride dihydrate). Nonmedicinal ingredients: citric acid anhydrous, sodium citrate dihydrate, sodium benzoate, sorbitol solution and strawberry flavor. Bottles of 50 mL.

Tablets: 4 mg: Each oval-shaped, yellow film-coated tablet, engraved 4' on one face and GLAXO' on the other, contains: ondansetron 4 mg (as hydrochloride dihydrate). Nonmedicinal ingredients: lactose, magnesium stearate, methyl hydroxypropyl cellulose, microcrystalline cellulose, Opadry yellow or Opaspray yellow (containing titanium dioxide and iron oxide yellow) and pregelatinized starch. Gluten- and tartrazine-free. Tamper-evident polypropylene containers of 30.

8 mg: Each oval-shaped, yellow, film-coated tablet, engraved 8' on one face and GLAXO' on the other, contains: ondansetron 8 mg (as hydrochloride dihydrate). Nonmedicinal ingredients: lactose, magnesium stearate, methyl hydroxypropyl cellulose, microcrystalline cellulose, Opadry yellow or Opaspray yellow (containing titanium dioxide and iron oxide yellow) and pregelatinized starch. Gluten- and tartrazine-free. Tamper-evident polypropylene containers of 10 and 30.

ODT: 4 mg: Each white, round, plano-convex orally disintegrating tablet, with no markings on either side, contains: ondansetron (base) 4 mg. Nonmedicinal ingredients: aspartame, gelatin, mannitol, sodium methyl hydroxybenzoate, sodium propyl hydroxybenzoate and strawberry flavor. Blister packs of 10.

8 mg: Each white, round, plano-convex orally disintegrating tablet, with no markings on either side, contains: ondansetron (base) 8 mg. Nonmedicinal ingredients: aspartame, gelatin, mannitol, sodium methyl hydroxybenzoate, sodium propyl hydroxybenzoate and strawberry flavor. Blister packs of 10.

Open Original Shared Link

Stephanie

[domineske]

  celiac3270 said:

Gas-X (one kind of it) contains wheat

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celiac3270,

Do you know which kind contains wheat? I couldn't find it listed in the ingredients.

Thanks.