Taking Celebrex Daily for a Long Period of Time

Hello. I was diagnosed with AS in 2017. The treatment that has seemed to be the most effective for me is a combination of Enbrel, Sulfasalazine, and Celebrex. I've been on that treatment plan for a little over a year. I know there can be long term effects from taking Celebrex daily, so when I asked my doctor about this he suggested that I try tapering off my dose to see how it affected me. Earlier this year I went from taking Celebrex twice a day to just once a day. This change did not cause my symptoms to worsen nor did it cause a flare-up. I recently decided to slowly taper off the Celebrex all together, or only take it every once in awhile, and I have definitely noticed a HUGE difference. My pain and immobility returns if I don't take Celebrex. It's almost as if my symptoms are slowly going back to how bad it was in the beginning. I feel like Celebrex has been a huge help with my treatment, but I'm concerned about side effects from taking a NSAID long term (I've already been taking it daily for over a year). I know of all the NSAID's it has a lower chance of side-effects. Does anyone have any insight or experience with taking Celebrex long term? Have any issues arose due to the long term use? While taking the Celebrex along with Enbrel and Sulfasalazine, my symptoms are minimal to almost nonexistent, so I'd really like to continue using it. I, of course, will discuss this with my doctor. It wasn't as if he told me I had to go off the medication. I just wanted to try.

Stacie,

Seeing as this is our first post, welcome to the group.

I've been taking Celebrex for 15 years now. There have been times that I had to stop taking it (surgery) and I knew real quickly just how much it was doing. I take it twice daily. Omeprazole twice daily with it has helped keep any gastro problems to next to zero.

I took celebrex for 10 years and then when I got diagnosed they quickly switched me to meloxicam. I was told that meloxicam is less harsh on your system in the long-term. I also found that the meloxicam works way better for me.

Over the years I found that celebrex wasn't working as well. One thing you can do to increase its effects is to take cherry tart powder or Agmatine together. It will increase the effects of celebrex 2 to 3 hours longer. It's great for getting through a full night without pain.

I can't get off the celebrex either. I am going in for colonoscopy and upper GI in 2 weeks because of it. I actually only take 100mg per day but it also helps fatigue and depression. I have taken pretty much every NSAID out there except diclofenac. I have about five RX strength NSAIDS in my med collection. Meloxicam was what I took while working full time but now it messes with my stomach too much. The absolute best were Vioxx and Bextra. As for as side effects I worry more about my kidneys. My dad had had horrible ulcers from his naproxen habit. Danielle

I don't have anything to back it up other than what I had done over the years. Prior to my diagnosis of having AS symptoms for 20 years I took Advil, then I went on Dicofinac, then celbrex and bounced around on all of the medications. Out of those 20 years I took 6000-10000mg of advil a day for 14 years. Through blood work and other tests I have zero damage to my stomach, intestines, kidney and liver. Lucky? Genetics? I don't know. But I knew that taking this much in high doses would cause damage so I did take Gastro from AOR every day, Agmatine and Glycine. These three things claim to help protect you against damage from these types of medications.

I would ask your doctor if a CT of your abdomen is warranted. It can detect gut issues before they become problems.

Diclofenac (Voltaren if I am not mistaken) is a BEAAAAST. However, it was very harsh on my gut. I happened to check the symptom list online because literally 15 minutes after taking the pill and having food, I started to get a scratchy throat. Then, I developed a sickness which I believe was strep throat or something similar. The symptom list said online that first time users that are male and within my age range can develop strep. This caused me to go off on a long research theory about inflammation and how it helps the body keep certain bacteria at bay, etc. I also have a post, if you haven't read it, on this forum that might be worth your time. It's an alternative approach to treatment with NSAIDs/biologics.

Here is the post: Link

That is VERY interesting. I wish I know about Agmatine and Glycine (probably Glutamine too) when I was prescribed tramadol after injuring my knee very badly (requiring a major surgical repair.) Three days after taking tramadol and my back pain started to become extremely evident. I even warned them that this was unwise to give me oral meds for pain...but NOOOOO...a regular citizen can't be well-informed about this kind of thing. lol

Agnatine is a great supplement. Reduces tolerance to morphine, opioids THC. Also it makes the THC stronger, last longer. It makes all pain and anti-inflammatory medications last 2-3 hours longer. I never noticed any side effects with the medications lingering longer in my system. Agnatine helps every so slightly with some nerve pain but its nothing special.

a few years ago I was able to uncover a study where they put agmatine into a solution and administered it through nasal. because I'm constantly reading reading up on and testing supplements. I do the best I can with safety in mind but sometimes things don't go as planned. I made my nasal solution from agmatine putting it into a nasal bottle and administered it that way. And wow did I go for a ride. I had an entire body Buzz for a few hours and then when I was taking my THC for sleep it was amplified by like by a lot it was really really strong. After the third night of administering agmatine this way rather than taking it orally I had to stop taking it nasally. it gave me vertigo really bad for almost a month. During the day I was fine but if I had my head tilted for too long on an angle and then moved I would get vertigo. waking up and getting out of bed I would topple over if I didn't give myself a minute to collect my head from spinning. But those symptoms subsided and i guesd why that study really never came to public or a way of administering agmatine. Taking it orally is the preferred way as they've been doing for a long time.

L-glutamine is a waste of time in my opinion. I found it aggravated my AS. I run a 100% clean diet when I test my supplements so that this way I know exactly what it's doing and doing this for 10 you're so tuned with your body you know exactly what's happening and why for the most part.

GLysine is a great amino acid that we do need. It helps with connective tissue repair and inflammation. But it's not groundbreaking . However I found it never really did anything for inflammation. What it has done for me was protect my stomach lining from medications and helps with sleep.
I also use it as a sweetener when I make a treat every few months. I make ice cream with 35% grass-fed sheep cream which is super high in nutrients out of all the milks and tastes awesome and the thickness is gorgeous because it's creamy, I add cherry tart powder which is freaking awesome for killing an AS flare up. Cherry tart powder compliments celebrex. During my journey I used to use as combination but I no longer do as I've come across better through my regime of supplements and diet. But again cherry tart powder is extremely effective. I add two eggs and two to three scoops of glycine as the sweetener. My wife uses glycine now when she bakes for the kids rather than use sugar. Glycine is healthy for you, we need it, so to have it an ice cream is a bonus. how awesome is it when you're getting a little bit of pain and you can have a bowl of ice cream and feel better from inflammation?


A new supplement I'm gearing up for is Butyrate. I'm going to be doing high doses of this supplement as it has been very promising for other autoimmune diseases and several other symptoms caused by the autoimmune disease such as depression, anxiety, ulcers, oxidative stress. From what I read like all supplements claim this is the Holy Grail. On a side note 905% of all supplements is a waste of money.

Be VERY careful with Butyrate. I've used it to help my guts too. However, tons of research shows time and again that a little Butyrate is good...and a lot can do much more harm than good and increase intestinal issues. I'd suggest starting low, and building up until you feel good, and stopping there. Propionate is another helpful item. Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes are the two classes (at a high level) of bacteria found in the gut. In HLA-B27+ people (such as myself) the ratio of these bacteria is skewed so that the production of butyrate and propionate is skewed in comparison to acetate. It makes perfect sense that too much acetate would be detrimental to the lining of the guts. Without the propionate and butyrate as an energy source for the intestinal cells (crypts etc.) then you will have breakdown. Add acetate in higher concentrations to the mix...and you have a recipe for disaster. Take a look into propionate, too. There a good deal of studies showing the firmicutes/bacteroidetes ratios being out of balance, what each produce and, subsequently, their effects on intestinal health. I found that sometimes taking butyrate can actually make me worse. So, word of caution, as well as a recommendation to check out propionate as well. Good luck!

So, I did what I said what I would do:P

I had success in other areas but it's not sustainable.

I took 2 in the morning and 2 at night. After 2 days I started to flare up. I pushed through it and kept taking but then I had to quickly stop. Besides the flare up I ended up in the hospital as my mucus lining in my large intestine was being stripped away with blood in it. It felt like my appendix was going to explode. They took blood work and came back clean. They did an ultra sound and came back clean but the stool sample was not. It as full of bad bacteria. So what had happened was the butyrate killed off overgrowth bacteria that was an underlying problem I had before. Prior to my taking butyrate I was having some major issues with my gut. Now it's all fixed. It cleared everything up and better than before. It's a shame I can't keep taking it as my AS reacts to it. So it was a win for me! I had a colonoscopy Yesterday and everything came back perfect. All healed up. My symptoms are gone prior to taking Butyrate.
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