<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

To ease your concerns over the GF status of any of the
drugs listed in my latest summary on meds containing
gluten (if my latest summary on meds raised an eyebrow):

Two people have since written me with positive things to
say about the drug Effexor (and about "apothecary"?... but
I'm not familiar w/ it).

Please note that I **was** able to confirm the GF status
of every single drug brought to my attention (in the
summary) - using the references I listed in my summary -
 except for: pamprin, midol, and cipro **the cipro made by
Schering Plough**. My conclusion was that the original
post which stated that "avoiding gluten in meds is simple"
seems right-on nowadays. This is a good thing! Although at
first it ruffled some feathers, because many of us know it
was not always so simple. And many people have been very
ill due to ingesting gluten via their meds.

Personally, I'd still like to see a list of meds that are
known to contain gluten, just so I know what to avoid. But
my own attempts at constructing such a list only amounted
to a list of 3 suspects. Needless to say, I was very
surprised.

Here are the comments on Effexor:

"But I've been taking Effexor for 5 years, and have had
absolutely no DH symptoms - and DH was my original
diagnosis in 1997...."

-----

"Hello.  I noticed on you summary post about non GF drugs
that someone wrote that Effexor is not GF.  I take Effexor
XR every day and have no problems with it.  I work with my
local Apothocary every time I take a new drug or have
questions about existing drugs.  I strongly advise you to
find an Apothocary in your area and start working with
them on all your drugs.  They are wonderful because they
have all the ingredients used for name brand drugs at
their finger tips.  Whenever a drug has a generic
available, they always check it out for me with the
manufacturer to verify that it doesn't have any gluten or
lactose in it before dispensing it to me.  The other great
thing is that they can compound any drug you need right
there.  I don't deal with regular pharmacies any more
because most of the pharmacists just don't have a clear
understanding the effects of gluten.

I don't know if you suffer from Lactose/Casein
Intolerance, but a lot of drugs have lactose in them also.
 I never knew this until about 6 months ago.  I never felt
good on my Zyrtec and didn't understand why.  I found out
through the Apothocary that it has lactose in it.  I now
take the liquid Zyrtec and am fine.

Working with the local Apothocary has made taking pills so
much easier.  I hope you take my advise because it makes
it so much less stressful."

-----

Dr. Megan Tichy
Texas A&M University
Department of Chemistry
College Station, TX

*Support summarization of posts, reply to the SENDER not the Celiac List*