Elestat for dry-eyes treatment?

[Majorglory]

Hi everybody,

sorry if I dont take the time to introduce myself as my first post but it's saturday night here (even for us dry-sufferers ) and Im in such a hurry ops.

Anyway, I follow this great forum almost daily and I just wanted to point you this article I found.

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/20070043025.html

It's a little long but interesting, I paste here the conclusions of this study for who doesnt have the time to read it all (epinastine is the active component of elestat):

"Results

[0049] After 4 days of treatment, tear volume increased 7% in ELESTAT.RTM.-treated subjects compared to a 34% decrease in loratadine-treated subjects (p=0.0357). The Elestat.RTM. group also had a 10% increase in tear flow compared to a 35% decrease in the loratadine group (p=0.0378).

Conclusions

[0052] The above results indicate that epinastine increased both tear volume and tear flow after 4 days of treatment, while loratadine caused statistically significant decreases in both tear volume and tear flow. Additionally, ELESTAT.RTM. reduced corneal and conjunctival staining, while loratadine induced a statistically significant increase in staining. ELESTAT.RTM. also had no effect on tear film break-up time, while loratadine decreased TFBUT."

I wish you all a good saturday, Im looking forward your opinions about it.
Ciao!

[Majorglory]

Nobody wants to say something? Come on guys, I know some of you tried elestat so I would be grateful to hear some experiences and impressions from you.
Anyway, I should get my prescription for it tomorrow, then Ill let you know whether it seems to be helping a bit or not.

Have a nice day, ciao

[dianat]

How long do you intend to use Elestat? I believe it is preserved with BAK. This will be counterproductive if you intend to use Elestat long-term for dry eye treatment.

I've not used it so I cannot comment on its effectiveness with dry eyes.

[Rebecca Petris]

I don't have any experience with it personally. However, try a search on the word "elestat" (the forum search button is in the blue bar towards the top of the screen) and you'll see many past posts. From a quick glance through them I see that a study was posted suggesting elestat is less drying than patanol, but many people have reported elestat as drying.

[Majorglory]

Thank you both for your replies

to dianat: I know about BAK and its effects, but I was wondering whether using elestat for a couple of months followed by a couple of months off sounds fair. Does it to you? The dose would be only 2 drops/day in each eye.. of course depending on its helpfulness.

to Rebecca: thanks for the suggestion, I did a forum research and read it all. I just can hope these users were induced to believe elestat was drying their eyes because of the general knowledge (we dry-eyes people have) that anthistamines dry out or for other different factors strictly linked to their personal eye-situation.

Anyway unfortunately today I couldnt get to the pharmacy so tomorrow Ill start it.
I hope it will help.. I want to believe that study must have a point to have being published with such detailed %s.

[dianat]

Majorglory,

I can see you are excited to give Elastat a try. I don't blame you for hoping for some measurable results with your eye comfort.

I am very concerned about BAK in any amounts, but if you feel Elastat is worthy of trying then far be it for me, merely a dry-eyed housewife, to advise.

Going with my gut has typically served me pretty well. Hopefully yours will too.

D

[charmee]

Lesser of 2 evils

Hi Majorglory,

Good luck with the Elestat. I think it's a good move. As far as I know, when DE sufferers have eye allergies it really must be treated, and every single allergy eye drop will have BAK, so what difference does that make? Eye drops with BAK are supposedly better for DE than the oral allergy meds, so try the Elestat with hope! Treating your allergies might really improve your DE. If it doesn't help, try a different one. If you find one that helps, and you're going to be on it long-term, you could buy it preservative-free from Leiters. I know both Patadol and Elestat can be bought PF from them.

BTW, I now take Pataday, which is the new once-a-day Patadol. It's expensive. I've often wondered if I should try the Elestat myself, so let us know. I don't know why they don't put us DE sufferers on eye-drops that are just mast-cell stabilizers with out the antihistamine.

Charmee

[lou]

and every single allergy eye drop will have BAK, so what difference does that make?

Not quite since in both Europe and the US, you may find either Zaditen or Zaditor or Almide or Alomide in preservative free single use vials. There are additional preservative free allergy drops in some countries in Europe.
I (me, personally, in my very own personal opinion) would try these first and only then consider others containing BAK for any long term use.
Having a preservative free version of Patanol or Elestat would be helpful for many of us...
good luck
Cheers

[Majorglory]

Well I don't have any (at least as far as I know) allergie problem. I only found this study which says no drying antihistamines are beneficial for dry eyes sufferers as they increase tear secretion and volume. I dont know how much reliable this study is.
Fact is this study (you can read it in the link I posted before) was conducted with topical epinastine (elestat) which unfortunately contains the infamous BAK (what a nonsense with so many eyedrops..).
Now, the BAK problem would be solved if epinastine were available in compresses (which isn't to my knowledge) as it's said to be helpful in tear conditions in any way of assumption, including orally.
The same study provides other no drying antihistamines which are believed to have the same effect of epinastine in tear secretion regard: one suggested is fexofenadine, which is available in oral formulation (telfast, kalicet).
Now the following problem would be to determine how much fexofenadine would be needed to achieve the wanted result. The study provides only a dry eyes dosage for epinastine, which actually coincides with the label indication for allergy use, suggesting me to try oral fexofenadine in the same amount prescripted for allergy.
Does this make sense to you guys? I think trying it for a couple weeks cannot be too harmful.

I hope you guys will be patient once more with me and take time to read and answer with your consideration

to dianat: thanks for the support!
to charmee: thanks for the suggestion about PF elestat from Leiters, but I dont know what Leiters is.. I live in Europe and I guess it's some USA based company right?

Ciao all!

[lou]

I dont know how much reliable this study is.

Nor do I since I haven't seen it, but usually it's the same as answering "how independent is it from the lab producing it and is it supported by other studies?". Maybe you could post the study's link here?
Since BAK is drying, then Epinastine and others non-drying should do wonders without it, don't you think?
I tend to be a bit skeptical I admit.
cheers

[Majorglory]

I guess you have more than just a right to be skeptical.. lord money rules the world :S

Here's the link

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/20070043025.html

[charmee]

Whoops!

I'm sorry. I totally misunderstood. I assumed you had allergies since Elestat is an allergy drug. I now see that you were talking about taking it without allergies. I'm very skeptical and wouldn't do that myself without a lot more evidence.

I also didn't know about preservative free Zaditor. Thank you for that information. I meant that if she had to take an allergy med with BAK why not try Elestat. If she decided she was going to take it longterm she can buy it preservative-free from Leiter's.

Leiter's is a compounding pharmacy in San Jose, Ca. They will mix you up a batch of your prescription eye drops in a preservative free formulation. The drops will have to be refrigerated. You can go to their website and download a list of medicines that they can make. They make all sorts of unusual drops like Castor Oil and DHEA.

It's a bit of extra effort, and I haven't done it myself yet. Well worth it though to avoid BAK, especially if you need the meds long-term.

Charmee

[dianat]

Majorglory,

Not to beat this to a pulp, but my biggest concern with this treatment you're proposing is if it actually works. (Not that I anticipate that it will...)

But if you should happen to find relief from it then you really are faced with the paradox of having found a dry eye remedy for yourself and at the same time damaging your eyes with the preservative...which ultimately will hurt you.

Diana

[Majorglory]

Im into my second day of Elestat and as dumb as this may seem- you know what? I feel relief!
I dont want to sound too enthusiastic too soon but it had been a long time since the last time I could stay so long working at my personal without fire burning in my eyes. Today I feel only a light "backside" burning and havent needed to take a break up to now. It could be suggestion but if this is the outcome then I want to be suggested all of my life eheh.

to Charmee: thanks for explaining me what Leiter is. I will look into it to find out whether they ship to my country (as long as its not too expensive)

to Diana: you are right, there's no point in finding an helping therapy if at the same time affects my eyes because of BAK. I'll complete a week of elestat and if I find it useful Ill try to switch to an oral antihistamine containing fexofenadine like telfast.

By the way, someone referred to me as a she I wanted to let know Im a guy

ciao!

[charmee]

Sorry!

Oops, I did it again! That was me who referred to you as she.

I don't know what country you live in, but try searching locally for a "compunding pharmacy" if you want to get Elestat mixed up preservative free.

Charmee