Caprylic Acid Side Effects

Almost every online article I read states that caprylic acid side effects include: mild to very severe abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, constipation and diarrhea. I had nausea, a headache and abdominal cramps the first 2 days. The nausea and headache disappeared after 2 days. However, I experienced another headache on the 6th day of CA treatment. I suspect the headache was related to lack of sleep. Nevertheless CA may have influenced that 'lack of sleep, because: (1) the abdominal pain makes me feel like I still have to 'go' before bed (and often do) and (2) those abdominal cramps wake me up early in the morning. Then I can't easily get back to sleep. So I get up feeling less than refreshed. I haven't had constipation, but varied from normal stools to diarrhea during the past week of taking CA. However, I have the abdominal cramps every day.

Nevertheless, I notice that I have an afternoon painfree period. Since I take CA capsules with breakfast and dinner, I suspect my abdominal pain is a CA side effect. My dilemma is: How do I know when the caprylic acid has completely eliminated the achromobacter? I suppose I could stop taking CA after the recommended 2 week period and just see whether the pain goes away. However, I don't know how long, after discontinuing CA, I will experience CA related gut pain. I may not know for sure whether continual abdominal pain means I still have achromobacter or I still have CA related side effects.

So I emailed my doc to ask how I would know whether CA eliminated the achromobacter. After I hit 'send', I realized that brief painfree periods between CA doses probably means intestinal cramps should end when the CA ends. If I still have gut pain, I either (1) still have achromobacter or (2) acquired a new bacteria. SIGH However, my doc said that the only way I'd really know whether the CA worked would be to take another DNA Microbial stool test. Just what I need ... another $350 test, which my HMO doesn't cover. So I emailed my doc to say that when the lab gives discounts to patients, (like me) who regularly buy their tests, I will test more frequently. In the meantime I need a less expensive way to determine whether CA worked.