UVESTEROL®

Question

Hello,
For several years, press reports echo of some dangerousness of the UVESTEROL® (it seems full of dubious excipients).
But this vitamin synthesis is prescribed for CF patients.
Are these rumors true?Is it a question of dosage?

Is it necessary to give uvesterol® ADEC to a pancreatic sufficient baby?
Thank you to reassure us!

Answer

Hello,

Drugs are not harmless substances: moreover the word "pharmacy" comes from the Greek "pharmakon" which means both medicine and poison. Drugs have indeed benefits and risks that should be evaluated according to each individual situation and, consequently, be prescribed appropriately, that is to say prescribed to the right person, at the right dose by weighing the benefits and risks and monitoring their effectiveness and tolerance.
Vitamins are not comfort products and overdose may result in severe complications. Their use in medicine must respect the rules of drug prescription.

Internet has become an essential tool for information accessible to the entire population; but it sometimes carries the worst and the best. It is therefore necessary to be vigilant and give credit to authoritative sources. Most drugs given orally contain excipients in addition to the therapeutic molecules. Some of these excipients can have side effects (allergies for example) but are reported in the information for consultants (and users). Excipients, such as any natural or synthetic substance, can have side effects or toxic effects dependent on the dosage. Even water can be a poison: make it absorbed under torture resulted in death by cerebral edema!

Supplementation with vitamins A, D, E, K (say liposoluble - fat-soluble) is indicated in patients suffering from cystic fibrosis, especillay if insufficient secretion of pancreatic enzymes (exocrine pancreatic insufficiency). Maldigestion, malabsorption of fat causes a decrease in the absorption of these vitamins which must therefore be compensated by supplemental intakes.

Pancreatic enzymes secretion is rarely normal in CF patients even among those (about 10%) whom are considered to be "pancreatic sufficient" that is to say with a fecal elastase rate greater than 200 micrograms per gram of stool.

The provision of additional fat soluble vitamins (A, D, E and K) or pancreatic enzymes can be sometimes necessary in these patients considered as to be pancreatic sufficient regarding the fecal elastase assay, especially if the blood levels of these vitamins are lowered.
Moreover, among the "pancreatic sufficient" patients the fecal elastase dosage must be monitored regularly (every 2 years) or if the patient signs suggesting exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (chronic diarrhea, abdominal pain) because this insufficiency can appear secondarily.

I suggest you discuss this with the doctor CRCM following your child.

Hope this answer can help.
Best wishes
Gilles RAULT, MD, Roscoff CF Center

01.08.2015