Bill's pure dimethylfumarate thread

[Bill]

A little update. With the onset of another cold I began a course of amoxicillin (500 mg tds) within a couple of days. I am now fairly sure that a side effect with DMF for me is an almost guaranteed progression of head colds to congestive lung infections. The upside, in fact a great relief, is that the cold onset is unlikely to have coincided with a lymphopaenia of any significance if at all. Nonetheless there must be a vulnerability. If anything I think I hit it too late and lightly. Next time I will add a tetracycline and possibly clavulanic acid also. I may consider adding doxycycline shortly if improvement slows, else I hope for benefit from the B vitamins over several months. The benefits for me over my last cold are a two thirds reduction in duration as well as a reduction in symptoms. There is also a minimal interruption to my DMF dosing.

[jiml]

You should write a book Bill I find it most interesting reading of your experimental medicines....where you get your ideas of what might work I have no idea, but I'm guessing you are scouring the Internet

Love reading your posts, keep up the good work

[Caroline]

Do you think there is a relation between the use of DMF and your progression of cold to more?
It shows again that people are different. I have been using DMF for quite longer than you I think, about ten years and I never remarked a more vulnerable health. I very rarely have a cold, even not while many people around me coughing and sniffing.
Also influenza I occasionally have once in two years or some like that.

There is a difference between you and me of course. I'm tough.

[Bill]

Thanks Jim and Caroline. I dont think I get more colds than average, but on DMF the severity seems greater. We certainly do not have the same response to this drug other than its control of p and psa (thankfully). I thought my last cold, a bit over eight months ago, was influenza, but I doubt that now.

[Fred]

Thanks Jim and Caroline. I dont think I get more colds than average, but on DMF the severity seems greater. We certainly do not have the same response to this drug other than its control of p and psa (thankfully). I thought my last cold, a bit over eight months ago, was influenza, but I doubt that now.

Maybe overtime your body will get used to it. When I first went on to Bio's I felt I often got a sort of mild cold or flu feeling after my shot, but now nothing.

Just a thought.

Fred.

[Bill]

Thanks, Fred. Without the antibiotics I think the cold would have gone the same way as the last, but I cannot be sure. Almost no change in disease with the DMF suspension.

[Bill]

A quick update. I am now fairly sure that cysteine (currently ~3 grams) taken at least a half hour prior to a DMF dose greatly reduces the gastric side effects for me. I suspect that this is because DMF causes a depletion of glutathione (GSH) in the tissue it is absorbed into. I also wonder whether GSH depletion is the main factor in DMF harming the liver. Taken long term, DMF stimulates the production of GSH, so provided the body can produce enough GSH this could explain why liver toxicity subsides after a time. Cysteine availability tends to be the limiting parameter for GSH production. Who knows?

[Caroline]

A quick update. I am now fairly sure that cysteine (currently ~3 grams) taken at least a half hour prior to a DMF dose greatly reduces the gastric side effects for me. I suspect that this is because DMF causes a depletion of glutathione (GSH) in the tissue it is absorbed into. I also wonder whether GSH depletion is the main factor in DMF harming the liver. Taken long term, DMF stimulates the production of GSH, so provided the body can produce enough GSH this could explain why liver toxicity subsides after a time. Cysteine availability tends to be the limiting parameter for GSH production. Who knows?

Ehm, do I read this well Bill?
The GSH reduction could be the cause of harming the liver?
And then the cysteine even more reduces the GSH?

[Bill]

Hi Caroline. I have been enjoying your holiday pics very much. The idea behind my using cysteine is to allow the body to make more GSH. DMF reacts with GSH very quickly and so depletes GSH in the tissues it is absorbed into. Blood passes from the small intestine to the liver, so there may be a depletion of GSH in the liver from any unreacted DMF. When DMF is metabolised to MMF, it can stimulate the body to produce GSH, but this takes time and requires cysteine. So I reason that the side effects I get are from a GSH depletion and that dosing prior to DMF with cysteine mitigates them. Whether or not my reasoning is correct my gastric side effects are reduced.

Cheers,

Bill

[Bill]

Got my latest blood test results. Unfortunately my lymphocyte count has dropped to 0.9 and I am borderline D3 deficient. In July I increased my dosage to three * 800 mg weekly. A 3.5 gram dose of l-cysteine in fruit juice an hour prior has all but eliminated the gut upset from the DMF. The increased dosage has worked well, but in light of the test result I will be taking one less dose a week and getting a bit more sun. D3 has been implicated in immune function, but no role in psoriasis is known. I am hoping that a bit more sun might improve the cell count. My disease is now less than the area of two fingers, is very inactive and continues to reduce very slowly.



This pic was taken mid-2010. At this point the plaque area was slowly increasing despite daily topical treatment. The next pic was taken about a month after commencing DMF. At this point it had had a dramatic effect on the disease.



A current pic shows that the DMF has kept things very stable, with practically no disease.