Anyone else had positive experience with Aciclovir?

[one-n-den]

I recently had a relatively mild attack of shingles and was given Aciclovir, an antiviral medicine used in the treatment of cold-sores and other herpes infections.

What also seems to have happened is that it has vastly improved my IBS-d symptoms, in that I’ve had no episodes of diarrhoea or bloating since. It’s very early days (two weeks) but I did Google Aciclovir and IBS and found a few hits, such as the one below:

Hello everyone -I have suffered with IBS D for 25 years (since I was a young tween/teen). I went to every doctor possible, had scopes, celiac tests, anything you can imagine. After getting no help from medication, I just learned to live with it by taking bulking fiber supplements everyday (I take 8-10 fiber pills everyday at 2pm like clockwork). It helped but I still had IBS-D (just made it much more predictable). I have been doing that for about 14 years now.Then the unfortunate thing happened where I caught a mild case of herpes (during protected sex - yes you can still catch it). The doctor put me on Acyclovir to clear up the infection. After a few days I started having normal, solid bowel movements. I started thinking - wow this has not happen to me in 20+ years - what an interesting side effect. I took it for 2 weeks. The entire time my IBS was about 95% gone (completely normal and solid BMs). But guess what - here's the more interesting part - it is now two months after I stopped the medication and my IBS is still gone. Either God blessed me with a miracle after 25 years of suffering or this medication had something to do with it. I googled acyclovir and IBS and some other similar stories popped up.I don't know what anyone can do with this story but I am just passing it along.God bless and good luck to everyone. ‘

So, anyone else had this experience?

[Eastbourne11]

Hi thanks for the info. I have not heard of this medication before, but it might be the breakthrough we have all been waiting for. I await other replies.!!!

[one-n-den]

The trade name of Aciclovir is Zovirax, which millions of people use as a cream for the treatment of cold sores.

[BlingBlingink]

That's very cool! I'll have to try that.

[Qwertygoop]

tuscaloosasurgery.com/PDF/b...

Looks like there is a study that supports this. Hope you are still doing well. I’m going to try. Fingers crossed.

[one-n-den]

Hi,

Thanks for your reply - yes, that study does suggest some link between the Herpes virus and abdominal problems such as IBS and acid reflux. In fact I think it may be overclaiming in the symptoms/conditions it claims are linked!

The beneficial effects of the Acyclovir lasted for a month or two in my case, but then slowly declined. However, I have achieved a considerable improvement in my symptoms lately with a very simple change to my eating habits.

I no longer eat anything between meals, leaving 4-5 hours without any solid food (ideally, apparently, you should drink only water, but I tend to have a cup of tea or decaf coffee).

This has resulted in a dramatic reduction in the number of ‘flares’ that I get, to the extent that I feel confident to go anywhere and take part in any activity (of those that remain to us in these straitened times!) I know that, at worst, I’ll get a manageable desire to ‘go’, which can wait an hour or two.

I have also eaten a wider number of ‘trigger foods’ without seriously adverse effect - beef chilli, and a spicy chicken and chorizo risotto, for example, in the last few days.

The ‘scientific’ explanation for this appears to be that the small intestine needs a period of 4-5 hours to cleanse itself between batches of food. In other words, as I’ve been told repeatedly, ‘little and often’ is not a good maxim for IBS.

I hope that helps - do keep in touch and let me know how you get on.

[2slik in reply to one-n-den]

Do you think if you continued a maintenance dose daily of the acyclovir like many with herpes do that your ibs would have stayed in remission?

[one-n-den in reply to 2slik]

i don’t really think so - too many other factors have since caused me to question the effectiveness of the acyclovir - dietary changes and the removal of polyps during a colonoscopy have all helped.