Has anyone taken Methyldopa for tachycardia?

[dizzyape]

I went to the Vanderbilt Autonomic Clinic and was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos 3 and was told I definitely have some orthostatic tachycardia along with inappropriate tachycardia. I am waiting to go to a neurologist for further testing regarding my dizziness.

The doctor at Vandy (Dr. Muldowney) prescribed Methyldopa for my tachycardia. Upon reading about the med it seems the side effect can be tachycardia but I can't find any information on it being helpful for it.  Has anyone taken this for tach before?

 

Thank!

[vepa]

I thought I recently saw a post on a thread about someone praising this drug and saying how much it helped, but I can't remember what thread it was on. 

[Lily]

My POTS doc tried this on me.  It helped my ADHD but not my POTS.  Clonidine is more effective for me.

[p8d]

I take it for norepinephrine surges.  It works very well for that.  I find it more smooth than clonidine.  I don't know about it helping with tachycardia.

[HangingByAThread]

Hi dizzyape,

I was the person praising this drug!  I’ve been on it for 14 months now.  14 months of hardly any adrenaline surges (I was diagnosed as Hyper).  Sometimes I do feel the surges but instead of being extreme and causing me to shake/sweat and not be able to go to sleep, they are minor occurrences - even if it didn't help the tachycardia I think I'd stay on this just for how much calmer it makes me feel.  I was also prescribed this by Dr. Muldowney.  He wanted me to start with 1/4 a pill and then work my up to 1/2 a pill but I cannot due to my low blood pressure so I’m sure I don’t get the full effect of what the meds could do if I could tolerate a higher dose.  I take 1/4 pill every morning after I salt up like crazy, drink a ton of water and put on my support pantyhose.  Like you, I was also diagnosed with inappropriate sinus tachycardia and orthostatic intolerance.  Despite my low blood pressure (sometimes 90/50 if I don’t salt up), when I stand up right for a while my blood pressure can go up to 140+/90 and even higher – that was making me sweat and huff and puff and feel faint and light-headed.  I notice that the Methyldopa has not only “blunted” the signals from my nervous system telling my heart to race, but it also helps my blood pressure not go so high when I’m standing upright.  The first improvement I noticed was that I could stand and finish drying my hair in the morning.  I was a little afraid to try the medication at first (I can't really tolerate anything at all other than Tylenol) and because I have heart block -  but I was put on a monitor just to make sure.  I’m not sure if other people take the Methyldopa more than once a day but I was told only to take in the morning because I have heart rates that dip down into the low 20bmp when I sleep.  It is also a pretty old (and inexpensive) medication and doesn’t have as many side effects as the other 2 drugs the doctor mentioned trying if this didn't work so I’m happy about that.  I do have to add that I’m not 100% and I still get tachycardia here and there but I can honestly say that being on this changed my life.  I’m curious to know what dose was suggested for you and how often you were told to take it.  Also, I want to add that this definitely didn't cause any additional tachycardia for me.  Good luck and let us know how this works for you.  I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!

[Emma33]

Hi all,

 

I'm a newbie here, I have hypoPOTS (and also CFS). My adrenal have been a total nightmare lately, so I started on clonidine last week. It was amazing in that it just cut out the flow of adrenal and anxiety, but I am really having trouble sleeping on it. (I know...it makes most people sleep more, but not me boo hoo. I have trouble getting to sleep, then I have a light dream filled sleep during the night and wake exhausted)

 

I was thinking of trying aldomet  (methyl-dopa). Can anyone tell me whether it has the same kind so side-effects as Clonodine?

 

Thanks!