# qestions about Questran/colisted



## michaelrouse (Sep 26, 2002)

Can anyone tell me the difference between qustran and colisted. Are they the same thing and does one work better than the other?Michael


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

They are both prescription (so being in the OTC drug section may not be the best place for this).They are both cholesterol-lowering bile binding agents. I think they are different chemically, but have the same mode of action.Questran is a powder and Colstid is a pill form, but I don't think there is any studies that indicate one is better than the other for diarrhea (or heck even a head to head for cholesterol lowering..but I haven't really looked)They tend to be constipating in people taking them to lower cholesterol. That is why they are being used for diarhhea. In people that can't recycle bile properly, or have no gall bladder so can't regulate how much they dump into the GI tract it may also be used. These kinds of conditions tend to cause diarrhea because too much bile is irritating to the colon. They lower cholesterol because bile is made from cholesterol and once it is bound it can't be recycled so you pull more cholesterol out of the blood to make more bile.K.


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