Valtrex - duration to assess response?

[GlassCannonLife]

I'm waiting on an order of Valtrex at the moment (hopefully no customs issues arise).

I ordered it from ADC, so 2 months worth of pills at 3 g a day is the maximum I could do in one order. Assuming I don't have any adverse reaction to it upon starting, I was going to order another 2 months and just take it for a 4 month period to assess my response.

However, I was looking over the past discussions on here, and @Hip mentioned that Lerner would make people take it for up to 2 years before making a decision on whether or not it was effective for them..

Is that also what people are doing these days.? It seems like an extreme time and monetary investment for testing out one potential treatment. Is there a minimum duration that people have generally settled on for assessing response?

I'd be fine to take it for 2 years (or whatever) if I gradually improve while on it, but if it seems like it is doing nothing I can't see myself committing that much to it - especially as it would be so difficult to isolate it as a single variable over such a long duration.

I very much welcome insights/advice.

 

[DrUniverse]

I feel a Single Dose 500mg Valaciclovir.
Lerner said first effects after 3 Months. Most benefits after 1 Year.

 

[DrUniverse]

Do you have High EBV Titers?

 

[GlassCannonLife]

@DrUniverse cool, so 4 months should be more than enough to tell if it helps based on what you're saying.

I haven't had titres checked as I'm in Australia and they don't give IgG titres here.. I had EBV checked by Arminlabs using EliSpot and it was low on that but I figured I may as well give valtrex a try just to rule out if it could help or not.

 

[Treeman]

I've been taking it for nearly 3 years. I started on 4g a day now about 1.5g a day. The changes are very small and subtle, but I noticed them after about 3/4 months. I just started to see an improvement in my general health and energy. Hope this helps.

 

[GlassCannonLife]

I've been taking it for nearly 3 years. I started on 4g a day now about 1.5g a day. The changes are very small and subtle, but I noticed them after about 3/4 months. I just started to see an improvement in my general health and energy. Hope this helps.

Thanks, yeah that's helpful. Are you able to give any more detail regarding the changes you noticed after 3/4 months?

 

[Hip]

and @Hip mentioned that Lerner would make people take it for up to 2 years before making a decision on whether or not it was effective for them..

As DrUniverse mentions, Dr Lerner found the very first benefits of Valcyte or Valtrex would appear at the 3 to 4 month stage, and then the full benefits would manifest after a year or two.

 

[Treeman]

Thanks, yeah that's helpful. Are you able to give any more detail regarding the changes you noticed after 3/4 months?

I've been ill with the present bout for about 30 years. At times mild, sometimes bordering moderate but 4 years ago had a relapse and was moderate bordering severe and had to give up work. I was only diagnosed 2 years ago.

I took nothing for the first 15 months and saw no improvement. I started taking 4g of Valtrex a day and after about 3/4 months noticed that I had subtle improvement. This included, more motivation, less headaches, more energy, better mental health and well being, happier and less pain.

I continued to take 4g for two years and month on month I saw the above subtle improvements. I reduced the dosage to 1.2g a day, partially because of cost but also because I try many things and didn't want to continually ask too much of my body.

I understand that it takes the body some where between 7-11 years to replace all its cells. I figure if I take Valtrex for that long my body should be free of the viruses it controls. I have tested positive for EBV and have had numerous shingles outbreaks, but only one mild one since I started Valtrex.

As above, I try different things and recently I have been taking Ku Shen for 3 months and saw subtle improvements although I have no idea if I have entroviruses etc. The tests where more than the medication, so I figured it was worth trying, and it seems to have helped.

I have kept pacing and resting all the time I take medication and without that I would not have seen any improvements.

Hope that helps.

 

[GlassCannonLife]

Thanks @Hip and @Treeman , that's very helpful!

Seems like my 4 month trial should be long enough to determine whether it's worth it to keep going or not.

 

[Beme]

I was on a 1mg dose for about a month for shingles ( we thought it was lip herpes, then decided was shingles and it took that long for nerve pain to stop). Anyways after ways I felt much better then usual for a couple months. One year later, get pain again same spot go back on antivirals but for less time at 1mg, once again I felt better for about 6 weeks until I got an illness that made me much worse then normal. I was on a .5mg preventative dose to keep the herpes and shingles at bay. I didn’t think it was doing much but prior to my first appt with a new general practitioner dr I went off the valtrex for 12 days. I def felt like it might have been helping by time appt came around. I asked for EBV antibodies test at appt, and had early antibodies. Anyways Dr agreed to allow me to trial 1mg dose so hoping I will notice an improvement at the one month mark like I did before.

 

[GlassCannonLife]

Hey @Hip @Treeman @DrUniverse ,

I'm two months in atm, and I haven't noticed any effect on my ME.

I currently have covid, and it's quite a struggle. I was going to run some doxycycline and I am already taking amantadine, both of which can interact with valtrex, affecting clearance. I was wondering if there are any issues with stopping for a week or two as I don't want to overburden my kidneys/liver - I also have to stop to do a full ION panel (no supplements etc for a few days prior) once I get over covid.

Would it be fine to stop and then do the next 2 months after a couple of weeks..? It wouldn't make me have to go longer to notice any effect I assume. Or should I just keep going with the next month at least, and do the ION panel afterwards?

 

[Hip]

Would it be fine to stop and then do the next 2 months after a couple of weeks..?

I imagine a 2 week break from Valcyte will not set you back that much in terms of your antiviral program.

 

[Treeman]

Would it be fine to stop and then do the next 2 months after a couple of weeks..?

I don't have the knowledge for any of the interaction of the different drugs but, there has been a lot of research informing that many dormant viruses reactive during covid. I took valcyte all the way through my pre covid jabs covid infection and I'm mindful that they possibly helped to stop me dealing with ebv, shingles etc reactivation on top of the covid infection.

You might want to consider the changes after the covid infection subsides?