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to Danielle about eating


Radha

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Radha, Unfortunately I haven't found anything that works. I basically drink protein drinks, water, and my gatorade/salt drinks. That is what I mostly live on. Needless to say, the pounds are shedding a little more than I want. I do try and eat VERY small amounts of what Paul fixes for supper(if my stomach doesn't feel too full or nauseated). I will fix a saucer with some food on it. I can usually eat part of it, but still have the same problems. If anyone knows of a solution, please let me know.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help to you. Maybe try eating baby amounts every few hours and see if that works for you :D

Danelle

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:D Radha,

I too have had tachy episodes after eating for years, but they come and go over the course of months for no seeming reason at all. Like Danelle, the one thing I have found can help is to eat very small portions and to eat them very slowly--which frustrates the heck out of my shoveling husband!

I also do better when I am eating in a well ventilated room--any heat at all makes it a whole lot worse. Avoiding sulfites and anything heavy is a good idea too.

A friend of mine who suffers similarly, swears she feels better when she "sits up properly like my mother tod me (!)" at the dining table rather than slumped over her desk at work or on the sofa in front of the t.v.

I've also heard that magnesium supplements are supposed to help tachy palps but also that they reduce blood pressure which is not good for pots. I haven't tried them myself. Has anyone else?

India

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Radha, are you taking a beta blocker? If not, you should definitely consider doing so ... low dose may be all you need to make eating, and life, more fun! If you tried it before and you didn't like it, try again, only split the dose in half. It can make a huge difference; my own problems have been made better by 25 mg of toprol xl once a day. And I agree with India and her friend about the sitting up like a proper person and not dining on the couch, easy chair, whatever. The postural piece is important to stave off symptoms. (Not to mention that it's better for digestion generally.)

From past posts I know that you need to get some food in you, girlfriend. Try not to think about it too much, try the beta blocker, and if those things don't work, try to let your heart beat fast without fearing something's wrong. It's all OK! (I know, I know, easier said than done. But that's my 2 bits for the day!)

Take care,

merrill

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thanks to all for replying, i already take the toprol and add a half tablet of atenolol when i feel extra tachy and want to get some food in, still get the symptoms, but would be much worse if didnt take any beta blockers, and i drink a lot of salt water too, and sugar free soda, thanks again for all your help, and i find lying flat helps alitlle while eating or lying down right away after eating, go figure!

radha

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I have a few suggestions.

Try baby foods, blended, strained, and see if that helps. I also avoid foods with sodium nitrites as a preservative, I get terrible tachy from it. I also avoid processed meats, hot dogs, sausage, etc. I'm now cutting out sugar, except natural stuff like in fruits. As to lying down right away, I did that thru most of my second pregnancy, works better with your head up on two or three pillows. Have you ever been "scoped" to see if your stomach empties properly, mine doesn't and I have to totally change how I eat, 6-8 meals a day now.

Blackwolf

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Radha, I too take atenolol daily. I take 37.5 mg per day and when I am having a real tachy day I take an extra 12.5-25mg even though my BP is in the low 90's/50-60's before I take the extra dose. Sometimes it helps and sometimes it doesn't. I have been on atenolol for 17 yrs now. I started out at 6.25mg/day and it was almost too strong!!! Gradually over the years, it doesn't work as well for me. Even with what I take now, I have tachy EVERY single day just walking through the house.

Any advice from anyone on something else I can do? Before the atenolol we tried lopressor, cardizem, corgard, sectral, and a few more but it has been so long that I forgot which ones. I am reluctant to try a new one becuase the atenolol has been my "lifesaver" for so long but now I am scared that it will fail me and I will be back up to 180-200+ on a regular basis. :)

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danielle, yes i have the same problem with the atenolol, it has lost its effect over the years, i take toprol which has also not been as effective as it once was, and i guess i will have to increase the doses since they dont work as good, thanks for all your suggestions,

radha

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Carbonated drinks are among the worst things you can consume if you have this problem - avoid carbonation completely. (Plus the sugar and/or sweeteners are incredibly bad for us.)

Along with the very small amounts of food at a time, try a pinch of non-aluminum baking soda in a small amount of water after eating.

Magnesium supplements do not lower blood pressure, they help to normalize it. (I feel better when taking magnesium, and I have low BP.) Magnesium seems to help with palps and tachy, but B6 was more important for me with those issues than the mag was.

Bettter posture certainly could help. Think of a hose - if you bend it, the water doesn't flow properly. Same with the stomach - it it's being squashed or somehow compromised by your posture, the food won't flow in or out properly.

The stomach empties to the right, so perhaps lying on your right side after eating might be of help.

A 10-minute gentle walk after eating is also supposed to help with digestion.

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I guess I have had a slightly different experience. Magnesium made me tachy, although I don't know what it does for BP. I have had reflux for several years, I have been told not to lie down for at least an hr after eating, preferably two hrs. When you lie down after eating, the food tends to come back up to your esophagus instead of moving down through your digestive system.

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Guest tearose

Is anything working Radha? There are also those times when for a couple of days or weeks we will have new symptoms that will come on and then just as mysteriously...go away!

I suppose once you look at changes in meds and or supplements, changes in what you are eating, changes in your activity levels, taking even smaller amounts of food at a sitting the only thing left is to wait and see what happens.

Hope you feel better, tearose

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i cant walk or stand at all, so a walk after eating is out of the question and this is one of the worst symptoms i have and its been gradually getting worse, just eating enough to stay alive i guess, until some new med comes along, its definately hard to watch all the commercials for all the food that i want to eat so bad, and poor mom wont ever eat in front of me, she wouldnt eat at all if it wasnt necessary for survival, it upsets her so much that i cant eat, thats the worst part, seeing how it affects your loved ones, thanks again for all your support, i appreciate it so much, for now all i have is my beta blockers, but have to be so careful since my bp is already low,

radha

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Radha, I am sorry that you are having so much difficulties with food and that you have tried so many altenatives unsuccessfully. When things are at the worst, I go to a diet of organic baby food and high protein liquid drinks. I know these were suggested earlier and I was wondering if you have had any success with trying them?

I can relate to the commercials on TV. I am always telling my husband how hungry I am whenever we see "real" food advertised. It is so frustrating to have a kitchen pantry and refrig full of food but only able to eat a handful of items.

I so hope that you will find over time that you improve and can have periods of time where you can eat without becoming tachy.

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radha, I have eaten baby food in the past. It doesn't seem to bother me as much as regular foods. It doesn't taste like regular food, B) but it does have protein and very little sugar, which really bothers me a lot. Any type of sweets, regular or fake will make me really sick. Also caffeine is a killer for me. I did try slimfast and boost, but they set me off due to the sweetners. so when I'm really feeling crummy, I just go for the baby food for awhile. I know what you mean by the commercials. It isn't that you don't want to eat all that good stuff, it's that you can't. bummer. I am maintaining my weight, but only because i am ignoring the side effects of eating. I figure if it was going to kill me, it would have by now, and so I just suffer through the heebie jeebies and headaches and arrythmias. I know not everyone can do that, but sometimes it makes me feel like I have a little control. The symptoms don't go away, but I do it anyway, so there body. How bad is that? <_< I did have ablation, so I don't have as much with the tachy, but it sure does try and I have all the other symptoms. Because I can't seem to get as tachy, it makes up for it with arrythmias. 6 of one and half a dozen of the other. As my body continues to just fall apart a little at a time, I find myself becoming somewhat more defiant as opposed to feeling helpless. But that's just me. Hang in there and know lots of people are here rooting for you. morgan

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yes i take meds for headaches, ultram, codeine, darvocet, even imitrex, not all at once of course! but many times once i put food in stomach then any relief of the drugs is gone, so its kind of useless taking the meds, and now after taking so long, the meds are not that effective, and i' worry that i will get addicted, not that i take them everyday, and only when pain is too severe, and its not always a rapid pulse, but sometimes a harder more forceful beating in my head, thats what is so painful, thanks so so much for all your replies, i feel so fortunate to have all of you and wish i was more help to all of you!,

radha

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Guest Julia59

Radha,

I am sorry you are having these eating difficulties. In the beginning of my POTS I couldn't eat at all. the same type of thing would happen, except I was on a betablocker--propranolol, so the tachycardia was not as bad, but the anxiety was really bad. I lost 25 pounds in 4 weeks.

This only lasted about 6 months though, and I started to get better on my own, but not enough. I saw Dr, Grubb and he prescribed Wellbutrin, and I was able to eat again. Unfortunately---I gained too much weight back. When I first got sick I went from a size 10 to a 6---then shot back up to a size 12. I'm just thankful I can eat. I still get the IBS issues, and have bloating and the usual GI issues, but nothing like they were.

It was explained to me the my sympathetic nervous system was over working---this is the flight of fight response your body uses for emergencies or for running a marathon---ect.---Mine would kick in just sitting around doing nothing and stay that way----thus crashing with POTS. When that happens, the para-sympathetic nervous system can't work correctly, and that is the part that calms you, aids digestion, and promotes sleep--ect. So naturally, this will affect your digestion process. Mine basically felt shut down. I was lucky, as I snapped out of it and doing much better in that department. I still have to eat small meals, and avoid heavy foods.

Have you taken anti-depressents? Sometimes these are used to help people with pots to control hyper-adrengic symptoms---/excessive sympathetic activity, and they also help with the digestive problems.

I hope you are able to get some relief from this. I wanted to share my experience in hopes it might give you a little help towards finding some answers.

Julie :0)

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i dont have many digestive problems, the main problem is the harder beating and the fast pulse, and yes i eat very small amounts and still get symptoms, but i still eat what i can, and i applaud all of you for handling all these difficulties so well, thanks so much for all your input, what exactly is ablation and how does it help and how do you get a doc to do it? thanks

radha

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