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Sub/Bupe - Allergens, vitamin A, coloring, etc.

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I've been searching and searching for a long time for hard info on this subject... This is why i am forced to make a post here in ADD. the only thread i could find that was majorly on topic was an archived thread.

So anyways, I am currently taking about 1.5 mg of suboxone film daily, a small dose for sure. Ive had about a year and a half's worth of experience with bupe collectively, over the course of the last 2-3 years. Reason being i was addicted to pharm-opiates, which led to oxycodone addiction, and then once the OC's were changed i was forced to start dope.
I remained on dope for about a solid year after that. ive had alot of little "breaks" where i tried to get clean on my own with suboxone i could get on the street. I even tried to get clean on Suboxone a couple times while on the oxy still. After that solid year of being hooked on high potency dope, i turned to a Sub doctor for help. He put me on 12mg of Suboxone daily. i was on that for around 9 months. then once again i got hooked on pharm-opiates oral hydrocodone, and oral morphine. eventually i got hooked on IV'ing the 100mg watson ABG ms-contin. that led back to a dope binge after a while and thats why im back on sub.

i know thats alot to read but i felt like u need a little background to understand my problems and questions...
During my addiction to dope a couple years back i started to vomit very often... it was bad. It took me a lot of hell to figure out that CARROTS were what was hurting me. I cant even have anything that has a color agent derived from carrots such as BETA CAROTENE, and APOCAROTENAL. I cant eat any fast food that doesnt list ingredients and i have to read EVERY label on EVERY thing.

I used to worry that the coloring or even maybe the flavor of Suboxone could have some sort of carrot derived ingredients, because it was making me sick just like the carrot crap would. after the first month of my treatmeant with the sub doctor, he trusted me to put me on Subutex. I mentioned that the suboxone seemed to give me nausea and that if i didnt get enough sleep, especially, then i would vomit shortly after my dose. i even tried lowering my doseage w/o the doc knowing, it didnt change anything tho. When i was switched to the the Subutex, i seemed to have less of a problem, so i stopped worrying about it. Only thing was if i still didnt get much sleep it would make me vomit still... just not nearly as bad or easily.

Now im on the Sub films...and i keep getting nausea real bad, and sometimes vomit. The thing is tho... Suboxone doesnt have any beta carotene or anything in the ingredients. why the heck am i getting sick? My doc used to tell me from the begining that i should spit out the suboxone after about 30 mins or longer. He said it didnt matter if i swallowed the subutex or not. Ive noticed that the bupe wears off faster if i dont swallow the stuff. supposedly the BA of the bupe orally is crap tho... could an open ulcer absorb any of the bupe or naloxone?
Ive read some very interesting posts on here about potentiation with vitamin A... i obviously am allergic to a big source of Vitamin A. could that make the bupe react differently?

im so lost. there are so many factors. i used to even wonder if the opiates somehow caused my allergy to carrots. im a red head and have ate carrots all my life. they are in almost EVERYTHING, so how did i just develop this allergy? it wasnt until my opiate addiciton that i started gettting sick from the carrots.

I noticed in another thread that in other countries they have WHITE SUBOXONE PILLS. It was because people were allergic to the dye, i bet it was in the EU too, if u look up carrot allergy on wikipedia it mentions most who are allergic are of white euro-decent, typically blonde or red head with pale skin. So maybe i was on to something here??

Anyone experience this? or have any idea what the heck is going on with me? :?
 
So have you already found out if there are carotenoid coloring agents in the pills you take, or not? I take it you have not yet found out otherwise you would not mention it in this problem?
What does the M.D. / G.P. say about the matter, are they being entirely useless and flabbergastedly mystified?

Maybe the problem is that taking the bupe inhibits enzymes responsible for the metabolism of compounds you are allergic to... although I think that most of those should be specific ones like retinol dehydrogenase and not cytochrome P450 enzymes.
 
Opioids do cause nausea, remember that.... Especially in red-headed individuals, opioid tolerance can be startlingly low to the point where "normally recreational" doses cause vomiting and dizziness.

I have never in my life heard of a B-carotene allergy, given the incredible similarity of Vitamin A to carotene, I think it's pretty far fetched. (essentially all plants, even green ones, contain some level of carotene). You *need* vitamin A to live, so unless you are on a meat only diet with no vegetation in it you are still consuming significant amts of carotene.
Does lycopene (red pigment in tomatoes) get you too?

I mean, shit, if i knew B-carotene causes allergic reactions in such small doses, what I would be doing is loading up on antihistamines rather than trying to restrict carotene intake. But I would run several double blind test to be 200% sure carrots were the cause.

If the nausea correlates really well with you being on dope/subs, then perhaps you need to take an antinauseant to help you?
 
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Opioids do cause nausea, remember that.... Especially in red-headed individuals, opioid tolerance can be startlingly low to the point where "normally recreational" doses cause vomiting and dizziness.

If the nausea correlates really well with you being on dope/subs, then perhaps you need to take an antinauseant to help you?

I am 100% carrots do it for me. i havent noticed that sweet potatoes do it or not, but im afraid of those too. any other vegtable is ok.
i thought the same about other things containing the carotene...
anti nausea meds always give me nausea. my GF has the startings of virtigo and has both major anti nausea meds.

I found some very detailed info on subs on another website. it seems there shouldnt be any thing that has anything carrot derived in it. these are the inactive ingredients: polyethylene oxide, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, maltitol, acesulfame potassium, lime flavor, citric acid, sodium citrate, FD&C yellow #6, and white ink. yellow #6 doesnt ever bother me... so i dont know whats doing it. I did try "draining out the saliva" instead of swallowing earlier. it helped alot with the nausea, but it didnt last as long it seems.
as for the red hair thing... i have a close friend who is also red hair and pale. he got his teeth pulled and the oral surgeon gave him percs and told him that he gave him something stronger because red heads have a weaker pain tolerance and need stronger medication. so i always thought the opposite. i know alot of redhead opiate addicts too for some reason...

Thank you both "sekio" and "Solipsis" for your responses.

and no "Solipsis" i didnt yet consult my MD. i no longer have an addiction specialist, and ive never seen anyone about the allergy.
 
Does the nausea co-incide with the onset of the medication? How much do you weigh and what dosage are you taking?
Do you eat before, or during when your Subs are active? If so, what do you usually eat, and how much?

Which anti-nausea medications have you tried? There are a variety of ones that act in a multitude of different ways. Cannabis is one notable one if you have access to it & do not "overdose" it. Aprepitant can be Rxed, it is a potent anti nausea medication intended for chemotherapy. There are also antihistmaine-type antinauseants like Gravol/dimenhydrinate, Phenergan/promethazine, cyclizine etc. And specific antinauseants like metoclopramide, ondansetron, granisetron etc. Even atropine/hysoscamine can work. Ginger root too, even candied ginger or ginger beer. Don't totally discount antinauseant meds befroe you've exhausted the list.

Some people find taking opioids with a full stomach, or anything more than a slice of bread in it, will make them very sick. It is also dose related, maybe if you decreased your sub dose it would reduce nausea too.
 
Captain... i did post that already.


sekio... i weigh about 235, about 6 ft 3in. im taking only about 2mg a day right now max. i usually dont eat before i use the meds. yes the meds bring on the onset of nausea, not every single time, but they trigger it easily. I have a volcano vaporizer and use marijuana regularly, certain strains give more relief than others. for me once im nauseaed enough the pot doesnt help, it only makes me throw up quicker. its more of a prevention thing.

ive had access to most of those anti-nausea meds and all u listed that ive tried seems to make it worse except for the promethezine. that just makes me sleepy.

when i do get something with carrots in it or a derivitive of them, i seem to do one of two things depending on how much i ate and how fast i start to absorb it. If it takes a bit longer i usually pass out and cant help it. i fight the sleep but it never works im out usually for at least a couple hours, then ill wake up vomitting profusely, hardly able to breathe. if its fast, i usually start throwing up right away and dont stop until every drop of bile is out of my stomach.

ive noticed that when i get sick after taking my meds its similar but not as severe. If i dont get about 9=10 hours of sleep overnight when on subs, i wake up and get sick very very easy. FOR EXAMPLE: this morning i woke up at 6am to let the cat it, i got a big wave a of nausea right before i could i close my eyes to go back to sleep. if i had slept the whole time till around noon, it wouldnt have happened.

im on such a small dose im tempted to just quit, but the other day i went w/o my dose for about 36 hours and i started getting fairly sick. so i still need to taper down a bit more or face the same nausea.
it is helping just a bit not to swallow the juice, but the meds dont last as long that way it seems

i geuss maybe just bupe doesnt agree with me that much, it just seems the more i take it thru time the more it seems to bother me. i just have to make it thru the holidays and then im gonna stop the bupe all together. hopefully 2013 will be the year i dont need any more that crap again.
methadone is nearly impossible to get w/o a doc "giving up" on you around here. plus u have to stop smoking pot, all the methadone places test for pot and wont dose u at all if u fail for pot. i think thats crazy, but whatever. so thats not an option. plus done is a whole other world.

so i have a question... should i wait to goto the doc untill i stop my bupe? my family doc doesnt know im on it. and if i go in complaining of a carrot allergy i bet they will test my blood. i dont want them just shrugging it off and saying o well hes an opiate addict, thats why hes sick. my DR situation is such a mess, i have possibly the worst doctor's office in the world. its a resident doc teaching students, and i was placed there thru gov insurance. awful... plus my sub doc was a flake so hes impossible to talk to. just showing why i havent gone to the doc straight up.

thanks so much for the replies everyone. it really helps talking to you all about this. ive thought i was going to die before from throwing up so hard and not breathing... i wouldnt wish it on anyone.

EDIT: i have some atropine, gravol, promethazine, meclizine, and a few RX meds for nausea. my mom and my GF both have virtigo so i can get them easily. the ginger helps for a short time, mostly a quick fix thing. i do have bad eating habits. the opiates have screwed up my appetite over time. plus the carrot allergy limits what i can eat. for example: i can only eat about 2 flavors of pop tarts out of the whole line of them. only certain breads, cereals, no soups, tons of stuff has carrots or vegetable coloring of some sort that i cant gamble on. so i need to improve my eating habits, thats a good point sekio!!
 
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It's not normal to pass out and wake up vomiting from eating carrots. Typically food allergies do not have that etiology. (usually it's something like hives, sore throat, skin reactions...) It sounds like you might have gastrointestinal issues or something else seriously wrong with you if your stomach is that sensitive. Maybe you have an ulcer.

I would see your doctor about this... it's a head-scratcher of a problem. If you feel your doctor can't do anything, why do you even bother going to him? The reason people pay doctors, teachers, and lawyers for their service is because they provide that service. If your doctor won't work with you to resolve health problems, you should find a new one. The fact you are on Suboxone is immaterial. Suboxone does not make people puke their face off when used as directed. And you've tried just about everything you can to prevent the nausea. Go to a professional.

Nobody on this board is likely to provide you with anything more than kind words.

(By the way, doctors do not run drug tests on blood unless they specify one should be run)
 
It sounds psychosomatic, imho. People make all sorts of health claims without any sort of diagnosis. Did they do a scratch test? What'd they find? No and/or nothing, I presume?

Nobody on this board is likely to provide you with anything more than kind words.

If that.
 
for sure sekio, i understand what you mean. i also think your on the right track. I have no health insurance, except what is provided thru our county for free. thats why i ended up with such a bad doctor. a LOT of good doctors left the area due to crime and poverty.

i just wondered if i was on to some weird chain of things when i started to read about people discussing the effects of vitamin A on bupe. thats why im here in ADD...
Ive always had a rough stomach, so i probably do need to have it checked out. Ive had others tell me that its weird i dont show other reactions.

anyone who thinks this is this least bit mentally brought on... i cant explain how awful it feels when i have this extreme nausea and vomitting.
trust me i would have put a stop to that a long time ago if i could. just over the course of the past few days, ive been feeling more nausea. its screwing with my eating habits ive noticed. Im just gonna have to bite the bullet and goto my horrible doctor. Its either that or goto the ER and get a huge bill.
it just seems like the bupe is making it worse. its likely that the mild nausea i experience from the bupe is enough to make me feel that way these days i geuss, since my nausea has slowly been getting worse.
thx for the replies and suggestions. anything helps, trust me. at least now im not wondering if the subs are half killing me. lol. thx again.
 
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