Search options (Page 2 of 3)

Hi Sweetpea,

I thought you know about the secret of Pepcid?? Perhaps you need to increase your dosage or wait longer before drinking? Also drinking on an almost empty stomach seems to be best.

Most of us find that either pepcid, or the claratine/zantac combo work.

It may take some experimentation on dosage and timing for you to find out what works best for you. Perhaps let us know what your routine is now and someone may have a suggestion that may help you.

hey Crazy,

Try waiting longer before having your first drink. Most of us take the pill then wait at least an hour before having the first drink. I personally wait 1.5-2 hrs :)

Try that first and if you still go red, still wait at least an hour or 2 but perhaps bump up your dosage to 2 pills.

And try not to feel too self-conscious about it, I'm sure that increases the redness!

Let us know how you're going.

Good to see ya Jasko ;)
Regarding food -- I've found that almost always I'll be at a food and drink outing, not just a drinking night. What I've found best is to eat lightly. The best situation is where you can just nibble throughout the night (ok, I just like to eat!). Eating a heavy meal before/after taking the pills make them less effective.

I personally haven't found any difference between eating and not eating dairy. But keeping your stomach relatively empty does seem to help.

So for your dinner party, perhaps opt for the lighter foods, green veges etc, stuff that isn't too stodgy (potatoes, steak etc). Try eating really slowly so that your tum has time to start to digest the food as you eat it.

Hi Mich,

It seems that the number of pills depends on your flush. Most of us seem to get away with 1-2 pills (each pill containing 20mg famotidine). I personally take 3.

I would recommend just taking 1 or 2 the first time. Then you can gauge whether that's sufficient for you or not.

Take a read through some of the previous posts and you'll soon get an idea of what dosage people take and  what happens.

Sweetpea, you're going to Fiji?? Be careful in Suva mate. I hope things don't get worse while you're over there. (For those of you that don't know, Fiji is on the brink of yet another military coup...)

Famo in duty free? I've never seen it -- its a pharmacy medicine so I doubt it.

OMG OMG OMG!!! Wai, have you had hair loss that you think is cos of Pepcid?? Anyone else had excessive hairloss? What a worry.

I took your advice and looked up 'pepcid and hair loss'. Hair loss is indeed one of the possible side effects. But I haven't found any indication as to how common it is. One website said the possible side effects are:

===========
http://www.healthsquare.com/newrx/PEP1325.HTM

Side effects cannot be anticipated.  If any develop or change in intensity, inform your doctor as soon as possible.  Only your doctor can determine if it is safe for you to continue taking Pepcid.

The most common side effect is headache.

Less common or rare side effects may include:
Abdominal discomfort, acne, agitation, altered taste, anxiety, breast development in males, changes in behavior, confusion, constipation, decreased sex drive, depression, diarrhea, difficulty sleeping, dizziness, dry mouth, dry skin, facial swelling due to fluid retention, fatigue, fever, flushing, grand mal seizures, hair loss, hallucinations, hives, impotence, irregular heartbeat, itching, loss of appetite, muscle, bone, or joint pain, nausea, pounding heartbeat, prickling, tingling, or pins and needles, rash, ringing in ears, severe allergic reaction, sleepiness, vomiting, weakness, wheezing, yellow eyes and skin
=============

... yellow skin, oh no ;)

The same website also lists typical dosages for different conditions. It seems that typically a doc would prescribe 40mg/day but for Excess Acid Conditions (such as Zollinger-Ellison Syndrome) they can prescribe really high dosages:

========
The usual starting dose is 20 milligrams every 6 hours, although some people need a higher dose. Doses of up to 160 milligrams every 6 hours have been given in severe cases.
========

I hope that the theory of 'everything in moderation' also applies to taking pepcid. I hope that if we only take pepcid 1-2x a week then we'll be ok??

Zantac's active ingredient is another H2 blocker, ranitidine. It doesn't contain any famo. Some people find that Zantac works ok but most of us have to stick to Pepcid.

If you read some of our past posts, you'll have to get Pepcid from overseas. If you have a good doc, they may prescribe you a script for generic famo which is exactly the same as Pepcid. But... if you do want to have a look in the chemists yourself for OTC famo, other brand names are Pepzan, Pepcidine

Good luck!

I had 60mg famo for about 8-10 days straight and it worked fine :)
I normally pop the pills then wait around 1-2 hrs before drinking. As lots of us have found out, using famo on an empty or nearly empty stomach seems to work best. But also light snacking throughout the night is also ok.

I often found that I would be drinking while eating a meal so popping the pills before the meal is ok, perhaps not as effective as not eating at all but still ok... although I've had to drink really slow for the 1st drink or so or else I'd run the risk of going red. Or perhaps that's just because I'm more likely to be drinking wine with my meal which makes me go pink still :(

Hey Flushie,

I tried Zantac once or twice. I only kind of works for me. I reckon it depends upon how bad your flush is - I reckon mine is about medium or slightly above medium (ie I flush quickly but don't get the nausea and vomiting etc).

Take a look at the link KMan posted - the article is trialing a combo of ranitidine and claratyne or something like that. But do be careful, I'm not sure if anyone here has tried that combo so I dunno what the side effects are.

You're yanking our collective chain, aren't you?!
I don't suffer from the runs, but I do get funnier and much more interesting after I've had a few! ;)

Well I finally got more famo from my doc - I just phoned them and asked for a repeat, so I didn't need to actually see the doctor. Is anyone else going to their doc for famo? What have they said to you??

Hey Angel,

ok, here's the deal. If your doc is good, he/she can prescribe you some.
Otherwise, you could try just asking a chemist for some famotidine. Lie and say that you have an ulcer and that you've tried Pepzan and it seems to be the thing that works best. But they don't make it any more so you would like to know if you can buy some generic stuff. Plead ignorance and say - if there is such a thing as generic pills like Pepzan.

I tried this and I hate lying... I could only get a few pills at a time and that only worked twice before the chemist told me to see my doctor. Getting it from my doc is so much easier on my conscience! :)

Good luck.