Background:
I have chronic low-level hip pain that is apparently arthritis related. Only “apparently” because my doctor hasn’t shown much interest in an in depth investigation of my symptoms, and casually diagnosed me with arthritis after an x-ray showed some spurring in my hip joint.
I also have sensitive skin and over the winter and spring had a few bouts of very very very annoying hives. On the suggestion of my dermatologist I started taking a daily 24-hour Claritin (CVS brand loratadine, actually, because I’m thrifty about some things and OTC medicine is one of those things). After about 6 weeks on Claritin it occurred to me that my hip hadn’t been hurting. I don’t know for how long because unless it’s an acute pain, who actually notices exactly when it stops?
I stopped taking Claritin a week ago because I ran out and have been lazy about getting to CVS. My hip is hurting again.
So I poked around the intarwebs, where everything you read is true, and it seems other people have noticed that Claritin may relieve some types of pain.
Just thought I’d share this very odd thing.
I have my annual physical with my GP in a few weeks, so I will discuss it with her and find out if I can take a daily Claritin indefinitely or if there are problems with long term use.
I suppose there could be some sort of histamine reaction going on with whatever inflammation makes your hip hurt, and that’s why taking Claritin would relieve it.
Does Benadryl or Zyrtec (or their generic equivalents) help as well? That might narrow things down a little.
Benadryl does not seem to help. I’ve taken Benadryl for weeks at a time before and never seemed to notice a difference in pain. Zyrtec makes me really loopy so I don’t want to explore that avenue.
None of my “studies” were performed using anything close to the scientific method, of course.
I thought I remembered seeing this. I’m having a similar thing with Claritin (ok, Costco loratadine). I was out for a couple of days, and the pain came back - I bought some more and within 40 hours, the pain was better again.
I’ll mention it to my doctor at my next visit, of course, but for right now I’m going to keep taking it.
As for Benadryl, that just makes me so sleepy that I can’t take it on a regular basis.
Histamine is one of the things that mediates inflammatory reactions in the body. That’s why your eyes itch and water when you have an attack of hay fever, I gather – it’s part of the erroneous immune response to otherwise-harmless pollen. If part of your problem is inflammation, then it’s conceivable that an antihistamine is helping reduce irritation and swelling, which in turn reduces the pain. I have absolutely no proof of this, of course, and I’m not a doctor, but it’s not completely devoid of sense, so sooner or later someone will probably get around to studying it.
I’m also not surprised that loratadine works and diphenhydramine doesn’t. They’re supposed to do the same thing, but really they don’t – I have the opposite problem, where all of the “non-drowsy” antihistamines don’t put me to sleep, but also don’t do anything else. I get to be Benadryl-dopey when I’m allergic to something. It does help my headaches a lot, but my headaches are often due to having defective sinuses packed with goo, which is something you’d expect allergy medication to alleviate anyway.
Doxylamine doesn’t do anything for anything I’d use an antihistamine for but it’s the only thing I’ve found that works for my insomnia.
Diphenhydramine works amazingly well as an antihistamine and is the only thing that allows me to survive mosquito season with my sanity intact but doesn’t put me to sleep.
Neither has shown any pain relief attributes where my tendinitis is concerned.
Loratidine doesn’t put me to sleep or work on my mosquito bites but now I’m really tempted to try taking it to see if it makes my hip pain better. I can handle the sciatica and I can handle the tendinitis but not both at the same time.
I was put on three meds after a couple of bouts of severe hives and was told to take them indefinitely. I eliminated two because of drowsiness but remain on 300 mg of ranitidine before bedtime. I definitely notice more inflammatory-related pain if a skip a dose. Might be worth a try for you as it is probably cheaper than Claritin.
Not sure how expensive ranitidine is, but I can get generic Claritin off amazon for literally a nickel a piece.
I know it shouldn’t surprise me, but it does that a drug that is so cheap (and so tiny) works so well. I only use it for cat allergies and seasonal allergies - but it seems to work great and doesn’t have any side effects that I notice. It almost makes me think it won’t work - except it makes the allergy symptoms go away.
Ranitidine contains NO antihistamine. It’s an H2 blocker, used for gastric reflux. If it’s helping your inflamation/pain/hives, it’s a placebo effect.
It was probably recommended to you because one of the other meds you were taking was an NSAID (Non-steroidal anti-inflamatory) which can cause gastric upset or even bleeding. The third was likely the antihistamine.
Yep, add me to the anecdotal pile of those using Claritin off label for chronic pain. Love the stuff.
But it does make me wonder…do we need histamines for anything that is useful and not awful? What am I screwing up in my body processes by constantly reducing my histamines? Hope it’s as side effect free long term as it seems to be.
As a histamine-2 antagonist, ranitidine is indeed an “anti-histamine.” It is just not a traditional histamine-1 antagonist, such as diphenhydramine. The uses are certainly different, as H-2 blockers work at the receptors in the parietal cells of the GI mucosa and do not work for allergic response, but anti-histamines, they are indeed. So while I would agree they are not blocking the development of hives, the same may not be true about blocking inflammation, as we don’t truly understand enough about the mechanisms involved.
When people who are allergic to IV dye need to use it, they give them “standard” antihistamines, as well as a large dose of prednisone and an H2 blocker to temporarily shut off their histaminic and allergic response mechanism.
Histamines are part of the immune and inflammatory response systems. They do have their uses, which is why we have them. I used to have to explain the same thing to people about cholesterol. :rolleyes:
Another off label user of generic Claritin here, although I’m using it for asthma. It has done more to alleviate asthma attacks for me than any RX’d med, no doctor even suggested trying it.
I had seen a few asthma sufferers on boards with similar issues to me mention they started taking loratadine and boom asthma gone, looked at the price and lack of side effects and said hey worth a try.
I actually had a doctor try to tell me it had to be placebo, and if I had asthma I needed to be back on daily salbutamol. If it is placebo I’ll keep it.
Yes, it is odd that Claritin seems to work for my joint/body pain. I was getting no relief from ibuprofen or aspirin. I kept searching for an answer for what to do for the pain I was experiencing in my body, specifically, intense pain in my elbows and arms and some in my leg. I have never had a formal diagnosis and felt that complaints about my symptoms were being dismissed. I was so miserable one day and felt that my symptoms were getting worse, like I had some kind of flare-up, autoimmune response going on in my body. In addition to joint pain and burning sensations in my legs, I had sleepless nights and then food started to pass through my body very quickly, I was eating something every hour. I did not have diarrhea - just everything was sped up. I thought, “Great, now I have some kind of wasting disease”. I was thinking I might have arthritis, lupus or fibromyalgia. And I was sneezing and blowing my nose.
Long story short, I researched on the internet and plugged in “bone pain”. A few obscure posts came up about taking Claritin for bone pain, especially in cancer patients. I had some on hand and took one (Claritin 24 hour) I had nothing to lose. My symptoms started to subside. It has been 3 days now (taking one Claritin a day) and I feel really good! What happened feels like a miracle. My arm and elbow pain is almost all gone (not quite), I actually have been able to sleep, and I no longer have to go to the bathroom every half hour. Why? Since Claritin is an antihistamine, I decided to research histamines. It turns out histamines cause inflammation, regulate the gut and also are involved in sleep! All 3 of my problems were helped by taking Claritin. I’m sure there is much more to all of this but my main question is: Why don’t more people know about this? Why don’t doctors know about this? I want the world to know that I feel my problems are now related to too much histamine in my body. I will be delving into this further. One more note: I found out that adrenalin actually keeps histamines in check. So, that might be another piece of the puzzle. I was to have my adrenal levels checked (if that is possible). If you are experiencing any pain or autoimmune like symptoms - try taking a Claritin 24 hour). It is certainly worth a try.
I take lortaradine on a daily basis and have mild chronic pain issues. The lotaradine pills do nothing for the pain. They help out with my allergies like nothing else, but doesn’t do a thing for even the mildest pain.
On a side topic, the last pack I picked up claimed to be “non-drowsy”. I compared the ingredient list to the regular lotaradine and can’t seem to find any difference between the two. Is there something I’m missing or is it just creative advertising?
Anecdotally, the kind of pain antihistamines seem to help with is pain due to inflammation or edema. Histamines are one of the things that mediate that particular reaction, which is why your eyes and nose puff up and get all itchy when you have an allergy attack. They might help if you have a pain condition that involves chronic swelling, such as some forms of arthritis or sinus headaches/migraines that are triggered by pressure changes, but aren’t likely to do anything if your pain is neurological in nature.
The “non-drowsy” bit is creative advertising. Loratadine, fexofenadine, and cetirizine are considered to be “non-drowsy” antihistamines mainly because they don’t necessarily render you an apathetic space cadet, as diphenhydramine does to most people. Dimenhydrinate was also previously touted as “non-drowsy”, until someone pointed out that one of the advantages of classic Dramamine was that if you took enough, you were too zombified to care if you were seasick.
Most common antihistamines are also anticholinergics, acetylcholine being an important neurotransmitter for pretty much everything in the human body. One of the side-effects of anticholinergics – along with such fun things as clumsiness, stupidity, and terrible cotton mouth – is to zonk you out, which is why diphenhydramine is also branded as Unisom and marketed as a sleep aid. Second-generation antihistamines like loratadine are less able to cross the blood-brain barrier, and thus generally less sedating in equivalent doses. You can still knock yourself for a loop if you take enough, or if you happen to be sensitive to it.
If it is placebo I’ll keep it.