flop Posted May 9, 2007 Report Share Posted May 9, 2007 Seeing the recent thread about betablockers and asthma got me thinking again about other rate controlling medications. I was wondering if anyone was taking other types of meds to control HR (Ivabradine (Procoralan), Calcium channel blockers eg Verapamil or Diltiazem)?Does doctorguest or anyone else know if there has been any studies / case reports of patients with POTS taking other rate controlling medications?Flop Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
worththewords Posted May 9, 2007 Report Share Posted May 9, 2007 This is a good question. I can't take beta blockers due to asthma. I was actually going to try a real low dose to see if I could tolerate it as my asthma was exteremely under control. However, as luck has it I live in FL and brush fires have been going crazy lately causing my asthma to act up. Go figure! I was on Verapamil for awhile. I believe that was the only calicum channel blocker I tried. When I was at Mayo-Rochester, they asked me to go off of it and see how I felt. Honestly, I didn't even notice a difference being on or off it so I stopped taking. Also, while I was at Mayo-Rochester in both '03 and '04, I heard great things about Ivabradine. I guess the doctors there though this might be a good option for me. At the time though it was still in a study. Last I heard it was only available in Europe. Does anyone know if Ivabradine has come to the US yet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tammy Posted May 9, 2007 Report Share Posted May 9, 2007 No luck with beta blocker here either... intolerance to them. I've tried diltiazem for 8 months and was more fatigued on it so ended up discontinuing due to fatigue level. I keep looking for a medicine that my body will tolerate for my heart rate and after 7 years, still haven't found something my body tolerates. Hopefully someday there will be something that works.- Tammy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yogini Posted May 9, 2007 Report Share Posted May 9, 2007 I'm guessing that the reason beta blockers are so effective (in many cases) for POTS is that they reduce the flow of adrenaline to the brain. Many of us have that constant over-adrenalized feeling. I'm not too familiar with calcium channel blockers, but haven't seen too many people on the forum that take them. I thought they lowered BP? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anna Posted May 10, 2007 Report Share Posted May 10, 2007 I take a Calcium antagonist (Amiodipine) and a Angiotensin 11 Antagonists (Valsarten) to help reduce my bp and stop my symptoms of angina. My BP is still all over the place but it has helped reduce the angina pains and seems to have helped normalized my arithmia, my HR will still increase, when stood up or sat still but not to the extent that it used to. I was put on these as I could not tolarate Beta blockers at all but my BP was so high I was in big danger of a heart attack. I also have EDS and the DR. was a little concerned that if my BP stayed so high I would blow some major blood vessel as I was blowing blood vessels in my eyes all the time. I can not get my head around how it all works but I have been on thsese meds for around 6yrs now, still POTSy but not as much as before meds.Anna Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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