Entyvio For Crohns Disease And Ulcerative Colitis (Plus One Herb You Shouldn't Take With It)

Entyvio is one of the newer drugs used to treat Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn's disease.

These two diseases are triggered by inflammation in the digestive tract. So the idea behind Entyvio it's the block a compound involved in that inflammation.


How You Take Entyvio



Entyvio is given by IV infusion.

That's important to know because it means you have to go into your doctor's office to get treatment.

But there are some upsides to doing that because once you get your loading dose done you're only going to be going in every two months for an injection.

By the way the loading dose is 300 mg on day 1, then another 300 mg in 2 weeks, then another infusion at week 6. Then you start getting the infusion every 8 weeks.

It's important to note that if you don't see Improvement by week 14 your doctor is probably going to stop the medication.

Interactions That You Should Know About

Because Entyvio can lower your immune system you have to be careful about taking it with any other medications that can lower your immune system as well. These include a lot of the newer injectable medications used to treat arthritis and things like tacrolimus.

It's also important to note that you want to be careful taking it with an herb like echinacea. That's because echinacea can actually strengthen your immune system and make Entyvio less effective.

Understanding The Side Effects

Like many medications - including newer injectables - Entyvio can have side effects. The most common one will be antibody development.


When it's injected your body can actually begin to recognize it. And develop antibodies making it less effective (4%-13% of users).



In a small group of people around 2% it can actually develop neutralizing antibodies which will make the drug completely ineffective.

Some other more common side effects are headache and muscle pain occurring in about 12% of users.

What About Monitoring?

Your doctor will monitor your liver function. He'll also likely test for tuberculosis.

Outside of that the main thing they'll watch for is any sort of neurological symptoms. Specifically they'll be looking for weakness in one side of your body or if you have trouble using any of your limbs.

While this type of side effect is extremely rare - if it happens it's very serious so you want to be aware of it.

Can You Use It In Pregnancy?

Technically Entyvio does cross the placenta. But in studies they were able to use it in women who were pregnant.

I personally would try to avoid its use during pregnancy but for some women it may be their only option so it's good to know it's something you can talk to your doctor about.

Help With The Cost Of Entyvio

Entyvio most definitely not cheap. It's like a lot of medications in this class. So if you're looking for help financially here's a link to Entyvio has website where they might be able to direct you to some Financial Resources: https://www.entyvio.com/copay-support