Mesalamine for Ulcerative Colitis, Active User Reviews (Page 3)

• Busyl...
• Taken for 1 to 6 months
• December 30, 2014

Pentasa (mesalamine) "Pentasa has changed my life totally. Was going to toilet up to 10 times a day until I was prescribed this. Now I've got my freedom back. Brilliant! No side effects worth worrying about. Take 2 x 500mg slow release tablets twice a day."

• Anonymous
• January 11, 2010

Lialda (mesalamine) "I started taking Lialda 4 months ago for ulcerative colitis after having taken Asacol for a number of years. I have been in remittance for a long time, doing reasonably well, but for some reason my doctor wanted me to try Lialda. It has been so nice to only take 2 a day as opposed to 6 of the Asacol a day and I have had more normal body functions than I have ever had. The only problem, my prescription drug insurance, Medco Health, has removed Lialda from their formulary list. I am really upset about that. I don't know why unless it's because it's so expensive. I guess I'm going to be forced to go back on Asacol....."

• Anonymous
• June 13, 2010

Lialda (mesalamine) "I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis a year ago after suffering for months. Lialda worked to stop my diarrhea practically overnight. I have not had a flair or really any symptoms since starting this medication nearly a year ago. I highly recommend it. Much better than taking Asacol four times a day. Once a day Lialda is much better."

• Joseph
• December 29, 2018

Asacol (mesalamine) "It seems that asacol is not effective when colitis is active because the coating is too tick. I took 2 tablets, after 6 hours on my body , 2 tablet came out in my diapher and the coating it still intact. I hope Manufacturer will make thinner coating because the mathematical computation of delayed release is not match to realty."

• Anonymous
• November 3, 2009

Lialda (mesalamine) "Lialda works great. No rectal bleeding. NO side effects. I started taking it for 4 months and decided to quit taking it after 4 months to see what happens. Never had problems. Haven't gone back to the doctor since."

• Dasho
• Taken for less than 1 month
• February 13, 2018

"I had my first flare and diagnosis of Ulcerative colitis 3 years ago at 41 years of age. I was put on Mesalamine and it immediately worked great. Within days the symptoms had receded but in place of those I am one of the few to get the dreaded headaches. I have never had a headache in my life until then. I tried to hang in there until finally having to throw in the towel. It was so bad I couldn’t sleep. At all. I went days without sleeping. I took the max amount of aspirin I could but didn’t matter. Once I started actually hallucinating my wife said No more. I stopped taking it. The headaches stopped immediately and fortunately the flare was also ending at that point. Mesalamine really is a wonder drug if the side effects don’t overshadow the original problem for the individual."

• Anonymous
• December 17, 2010

Lialda (mesalamine) "Only been on it for a week but my fairly severe ulcerative colitis symptoms have fully subsided. I am taking 1.2g 2 x day. I also started 1200mg of slippery elm and Turmeric 2 days after starting the Lialda. "

• Anonymous
• July 6, 2011

Lialda (mesalamine) "I have been diagnosed with ulcerative colitis for nearly 3 years. I take 3 pills a day. Initially, I was prescribed 4 pills, but did have an increase in headaches. But, just dropping to 3 pills alleviated the headaches and my proctitis is well managed. I have needed to do bouts of predisone 2 times, but overall, Lialda has worked for me."

• Anonymous
• Taken for less than 1 month
• July 30, 2013

Asacol (mesalamine) "Diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis 10 days ago. Started 800MG 2 tablets, 3 times/day plus suppository at night. Diarrhea quickly went down to once a day instead of eight times. Experiencing fatigue, slight nausea and seem to be developing acne."

• Tired...
• Taken for 1 to 6 months
• September 8, 2020

Salofalk (mesalamine) "I was on Salofalk enema for two weeks and didn't see improvement in my ulcerative colitis until day 13. By then I was done dose. After few days bleeding again. Doctor put me back on for another 14 days, same thing happened. Improvement on day 13 and then was done dose. After 8 days symptoms came back with a vengeance. I'm now on third week to see if I'm responding to treatment but just need more than two week on it. I'm tired of it all. Been suffering since March. Doc doesn't think I need colonoscopy. Symptoms are identical to colon cancer yet he is so sure without any diagnostic testing that it's not cancer."

• Uncle...
• March 13, 2017

Salofalk (mesalamine) "I have mild UC and I was prescribed both pentasa and salofalk enema. I found that those 2 taken together works really great and my symptoms disappeared after 5 days. Taking pentasa (pill form) by itself did not helped at all until I started the enema after a week."

• Anonymous
• October 20, 2011

Lialda (mesalamine) "I was worried to be on a medication such as lialda on its strongest dosage (4 pills a day). My doctor told me to have all 4 in the morning with food. The combination of the Lialda and Canasa suppository at night helped my symptoms within days. I was blood free for two weeks but now notice some blood again. I'm really frustrated and hope this is just going to take more time and not mean that I have to try something stronger. "

• chadTX
• November 14, 2010

Lialda (mesalamine) "I am a male age 30 and I was diagnosed with Pan Colitis 3 years ago. Once I changed my diet (no lactose, less fast food, no sodas) it has seemed to be only confined to my left side. I have had a few flare ups each year but have always used prednisone each time. This works great for my UC but makes me a grump, I gain weight, get acne, etc. Each time (3-4 times) I have tried Asacol or Lialda it flushes out my colon with severe diarrhea to the point it is fluid only and each time I have stopped taking it because of the adverse reactions. Currently I am in a flare to the point of seeing blood and I do not want to have to start on prednisone again. So now I am on day 5 of taking Lialda and the diarrhea has been less each day. Hopefully I will stop seeing blood soon."

• Anonymous
• November 8, 2008

Lialda (mesalamine) "Lialda has given me a decent quality of life again. I've suffered relentlessly for 20 years and finally found a great doctor, who gave me this medication. It's not an overnight fix. I've been taking it for 3 months and it has fixed what I thought was permanently my lot in life. What a fantastic medication !"

• Anonymous
• November 21, 2008

Asacol (mesalamine) "I've been on Asacol 12 pills/day (4 pills, 3x/day) and I've been experiencing headaches at least 2x/week. Also, I've had side effects of fatigue & acne. Whether or not these side effects can be completely blamed on the last 4-5 months of asacol use, who really knows. But Asacol has helped control my symptoms almost completely."

• Anonymous
• December 13, 2010

Lialda (mesalamine) "I was only able to take Lialda for one week and had severe headaches causing tenderness in the lower bottom of my head, blurred vision and vomiting when headache worsened. It worked and I was feeling almost 90% back to normal, however the headaches worsened and had to discontinue."

• Anonymous
• April 2, 2008

Rowasa (mesalamine) "Effective in gaining control of a moderate UC flare, but awful to use. This is an enema that should be retained - "Held in" all night. This is especially difficult for me during a flare. Don't fart! Stains. Tip- squeeze all the air out before administering."

• Anonymous
• October 3, 2008

Asacol (mesalamine) "It has been very helpful in controlling my UC. I have been taking it since my last episode along with prednisone and it has been a life saver. I have had no really side effects except extra secretion of saliva, but I am starting to feel much better since starting these medicines."

• Scotlad
• Taken for 1 to 6 months
• February 18, 2021

"After months of gut pain with bouts of severe watery diarrhoea then cramping, I was scoped and found to have widespread moderate UC. Had previous scopes over years for removal of polyps but no signs of anything else in the past, (family history of bowel cancer) Started on Mesalamine 1.2 g daily September 2020- after first month symptoms and pain/ frequency settled felt great apart from occasional bouts of nausea, retching, dizziness and sweating lasting 15 minutes. Since January 2021 having solid motions two to three times daily-no blood but regular lower abdominal cramps and urgency feeling starting to inhibit my lifestyle again. Tried taking Mebeverine but felt worse. Trying to control pain with codeine/ paracetamol in order to go out to work but am semi retired and can organize the hours I do work. Don't know that Mesalamine 1.2 is working as well for me but equally scared to stop taking the medicine and finding myself back at square one."

• fufa
• March 8, 2010

Asacol (mesalamine) "I am taking Asacol for the last 4 years and I am still having problem with gas and like full stomach with or without eating or drinking. I am having inflammation in the body and increasing weight and increasing the prolactin (milk) and not focusing well and discomfort."

• Anonymous
• July 19, 2009

Rowasa (mesalamine) "I have found that it works great for my flare ups. It is to be retained all night, which isn't difficult as long as you do a full tap water bag enema first, empty, wait an hour or so and then inject the Rowasa enema. If you just simply use the Rowasa with a full colon, it becomes quite difficult to retain. If you do the Rowasa immediately after the big enema, you have absorbed too much water and not the medicine of the Rowasa. Bottom line is this: It's no fun, but clean yourself out with at least one full bag enema first, wait and hour and then put it in. This always works for me. I hope it helps."

• Anonymous
• October 14, 2010

Lialda (mesalamine) "I have microscopic colitis. Lialda works great but the only major drawback is the expense. $191 every two weeks. My insurance dropped me and that cost is with a local pharmacy prescription discount card. At this rate I will be unable to keep up with it."

• Anonymous
• February 27, 2009

Lialda (mesalamine) "I have take Lialda for 3 weeks and not much improvement. My doctor increased my intake to 3 pills everyday and started me on prednisone. In my opinion prednisone will do most of the work. I do not plan on taking Lialda long term because of side effects of headache, cramping, bloating, etc. This pill does not work fast enough."

• Rick
• July 31, 2011

Canasa (mesalamine) "I used Canasa for 1 year and it seemed to lessen my flare ups. After one year my prescription discount has run out and can't be renewed for 6 months. Since Canasa is VERY expensive I'm not able to afford it. I've been off it for three weeks now and experiencing small flare ups, severe fatigue and cramping."

• Dance...
• Taken for less than 1 month
• September 3, 2017

"In June, 2017, I had a colonoscopy because I had had blood in my stool for 5 months which started out with a small amount to a larger amount. I was diagnosed as having colitis in my sigmoid colon. The gastroenterologist prescribed a sulfa drug first which did not help, then flagyl which did not help, then cipro and prednisone which did not help. He put me on Melasamine along with prednidone 4 days ago. I now see no blood at all in my stool. He also put me on a low fiber diet as well. Right now I am so happy that my bleeding is being resolved. It would be wonderful if I can stop taking it when I go back to see him in a week. Time will tell."