You ask the question you get your answer!

[pretender]

If I have anything prescribed or otherwise that makes me ill I want to know why so nothing else takes the blame!

Having been diagnosed with Atrial Fibrilation I was prescribed Warfarin on the 5th June 2014 over time I started feeling unwell, my dose was increased from 5mg daily up to 6mg and randomly 7mg. My health did not improve so I queried the ingredients of Warfarin to which I received a response from the manufacturers technical department. One ingredient being called Pregelatinised starch which I queried further knowing that starch can also come from wheat etc etc here is the response I received today :

We have now received the below information regarding your query:

"Pregelatinised starch may be prepared from Maize starch, potato starch or rice starch. As such it is inadvisable for someone who is a coeliac to take tablets that contain pregelatinised starch"

I hope the above information is useful.

Kind Regards

Sonia

Sonia Sharma

UK Technical Co-Ordinator

Almus Pharmaceuticals, 2 The Heights,

[pretender]

I was instructed to take this medication 6mg at 6pm by 8pm my stomach could be seen getting bloated, last night I did not doze on the settee until 0130 this morning and up and about by 4am. Another discontinued drug from today.

[Penel]

Bad luck Pretender, the damn stuff gets everywhere. Have you been back to your GP? There seem to be some alternatives now, recommended by NICE.

patient.co.uk/doctor/oral-a...

[pretender in reply to Penel]

Thanks for this, havn't gone back to GP because he is on the sick.......

[Manawydan]

I am confused why they have said Coeliacs should avoid the tablets as above they have only mentioned maize, potato and rice starch, none of which contain gluten.

[pretender]

The answer manawydan is they do appear to be uncertain of the origin of the starch "May be" this or that but in Europe the usual origin is wheat, maize in USA. No different to the term Gluten Free may contain up to 20ppm of gluten per kilo of finished product......"May" or "May be"

[Manawydan in reply to pretender]

They didn't say "may be from wheat", they did however mention 3 items that it could be made from and all 3 are naturally GF. It worries me that the firm don't know what is GF and what isn't.

[Hidden in reply to Manawydan]

Hi Manawydan, I think that this is a more complex question then we are led to believe, because this is what they said:

"Pregelatinised starch may be prepared from Maize starch, potato starch or rice starch. As such it is inadvisable for someone who is a coeliac to take tablets that contain pregelatinised starch"

Now to me the key word's are may be made from x,y,z but pre gelatinised starch can also be made from wheat. Also does the manufacturer know; 1) the actual source of the starch and 2) That even if it is from a gluten free grain is it certified as gluten free (and free from cross contamination)

This is my interpretation of this. So I would have a chat with the pharmacist that dispenses the medication.

In the UK all prescription meds are classed as gf but in the US coeliac are advised to avoid med's with pre gelatinised starch.

[pretender]

Manawydan, thank you for your response but take a look at Maltodextrin what can that be made from and do they state its origin? its the same scenario.

[Manawydan]

But this isn't maltodextrin, Pretender, so I don't see your point. As I said, my concern is that a pharmaceutical company doesn't understand where gluten comes from because the three items they highlight wherethe product is made from do not contain gluten at all.

By the way, I know exactly where maltodextrin can come from. I've done my own research on what can affect my CD and other illnesses I have.