Cholestyramine (Questran®, Questran Light®, Cholybar®) is a bile acid sequestrant, which binds bile in the gastrointestinal tract to prevent its reabsorption. It increases removal of bile acids from body by forming insoluble complexes in intestine, which are then excreted in feces. As body loses bile acids, it converts cholesterol from blood to bile acid, thus lowering serum cholesterol. It is primarily used to treat hypercholesterolemia, but can also used to treat the pruritus, or itching, that often occurs during liver failure due to the liver's inability to eliminate bile. In pharmacology, bile acid sequestrants a group of medication used for binding bile in the gastrointestinal tract. ... Bile (or gall) is a bitter, greenish-yellow alkaline fluid secreted by hepatocytes from the liver of most vertebrates. ... The gastrointestinal tract or digestive tract, also referred to as the GI tract or the alimentary canal, (nourishment canal) or the gut, is the system of organs within multicellular animals which takes in food, digests it to extract energy and nutrients, and expels the remaining waste. ... Hypercholesterolemia (literally: high blood cholesterol) is the presence of high levels of cholesterol in the blood. ... An itch (Latin: pruritus) is a sensation felt on an area of skin that makes a person or animal want to scratch it. ... Liver failure is the final stage of liver disease. ...

Available forms

Cholestyramine is available as powder form, in 4 gram packets. In the United States, it can be purchased either as a generic medicine, or as Questran® or Questran Light® (Bristol-Myers Squibb). Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY), colloquially referred to as BMS, is a pharmaceutical corporation, formed by a 1989 merger between pharmaceutical companies Bristol-Myers Company, founded in 1887 by William McLaren Bristol and John Ripley Myers in Clinton, NY (both were graduates of Hamilton College), and Squibb Corporation. ...

Dosage

4 to 8 grams once or twice daily, maximum dose 24 grams a day.