beggiatoa

Ginkgo and folic acid. From 1989!

I was going to write a new post but this one is very impressive so I'll add this here. Found some great ANS stimulants. They work via different mechanisms but the final effect is the activation of the autonomic nervous system. Capsaicin - believe it or not! Works very, very well ! Yohimbe - used a liquid extract and titrated slowly. Chicken Essence tablets - you read right ; ) I haven't tried this but I'm curious. CDP choline or alpha GPC - acetylcholine precursors Green tea

This might be of interest to some. I'm trying to figure out the dose needed to get on this ASAP.

I just wrote something about thirst and potassium use By the way, I also used to have MVP and I totally cured it using magnesium supplements for around a year. There some studies on pubmed that talk about that. I imagine magnesium along with potassium will correct the problem faster.

Something else I've noticed since using potassium; less thirst. Found this study to support my personal observations. Potassium supplentation increased aldosterone production and water retention by the body. An inability to retain water is another problem we face. In the study, they used a dose of 3.9 g in supplements but you should in no way use such a high dose. I suggest anyone interested in using potassium start with the lowest dose possible (99 mg) and let your body ajust slowly. Too much, too soon can be very dangerious with potassium. PMID: 22149452

Metronidazole acts as a thiaminidase so it blocks the action of thiamin. In essence, it causes a type of wernicke encephalopathy. I experienced this once from taking metro. long term. Horrible experience. Finally found relief by using sulbutiamine ( a thiamin derivative that crosses the BBB).

There could be a logical explanation for this. Garbanzo beans are rich in molybdenum. http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?dbid=58&tname=foodspice Molyb. is a cofactor for the enzyme xanthine oxidase which according to one study, "These results suggest that xanthine oxidase accounts for a putative source of oxyradical generation that is associated with an increasing arteriolar microvascular tone in this form of hypertension."

Some ideas from the study I want to point out.

Came across this study I found interesting. There is a link between exercise intolerance and potassium intake. I have been supplementing with a little potassium along with pantothenic acid and I found this improved exercise capacity, stregth and surprisingly, my OI. I tend to get very lightheaded when I workout, specially with doing squats and this has improved some with the use of potassium. There's also an association between hypothyroidism and weakness, fatigue exercise intolerance and using extra iodine also seems to help. From another study, it also seems that patients with OI and exercise intolerance have lower levels of potassium in their blood. When they exercise, the serum levels increase rapidly and drop just as rapidly during rest. This could partly explain why we feel so lousy after any kind of exercise. You would think that since potassium is used to lower pressure in the hypertensive, it would have the same effect on us. Well, that hasn't been my experience at least. I'm getting benefits from just using a little extra everyday so there's no need to megadose (that's dangerous). Improving baroreceptor sensitivy also helps OI since they will respond more quickly to drops on BP. This follows my old post on pantothenic acid. Full text study I read this from: http://eurheartj.oxfordjournals.org/content/29/12/1531.full.pdf This is the original study they cited:

Magnesium also increases noradrenaline. Higher doses seem to work better. http://www.ergo-log.com/magnesiumlackofsleep.html

Not to go off topic Dizzy, but have you considered using triphala for your celiacs related complication ? It's great stuff !

As far as the why, I have no idea but my body seems to be functioning better with extra B5. I read a lot of studies on pubmed. One study I came across referring to nutritional deficiencies said that there could be some kind of genetic mutation that predisposes the patient to require more of a certain nutrient. This is all speculation though. I've had low muscle tone for a long time. I remember people touching me and telling me how I had "soft muscles". The problem got worse in my 30's where it started affecting my respiratory muscles and I started having shortness of breath. 2010 was a bad year for me but the shortness of breath is finally gone and I think these nutritional interventions have helped.

Here's another interesting tid bit. It seems that increasing co A also increases aldosterone. I got curious after taking 1 gram of B5 today and noticed how I wasn't thirsty at all. In fact, I had to remind myself to drink water. I can normally drink gallons everyday without feeling quenced. There was no abstract but the title made it clear enough.

The cause of your SOB could be muscular in origin. Since acetylcholine plays such an important role in POTS and seem to be in the low end for the most part. This could be preventing your respiratory muscles from contracting efficiently enough to fully expand your lungs. Is that what it feel like ? Like you can't expand your lungs fully. I have this same problem and after a thorough evalution by the pneumologist, he suggested the problem could be muscular in origin. He found nothing wrong with my lungs and could be seen or measured. Does using mestinon help with sob ?

There is another vitamin that I find equally as interesting as B5. That is vitamin C. I was going to write another post for it but might as well keep it all here. It was mentioned before in this post by ramakentesh and waterbaby mentioned how helpful it was for her in another one of his posts. She is right. Sue1234 also theorized that Vitamin C may be involved in Dysautonomia because of all the related connective tissue problems that are seen in this post. Vitamin C has a interesting action in potentiating the effect of norepineprhine in the body. It binds to NE and helps it attach to its receptor more strongly. But, vitamin C wont make you feel better by itself ! If you already have low levels of NE it wont do much. It'll probably work better when you combine with other vitamins that increase norepinephrine like thiamine, pantothenic acid and B12. You also need about 2 grams of vitamin c per dose to fully saturate the body. The full study is available if anyone wants to read it. Ascorbate works so well that it makes ephedrine toxic when combined. Ephedrine potently increases norepinephrine levels. Waterbaby did a really good job in covering the effect of B1 in this post. B1 works together with pantothenic acid in increasing acetylcholine. Acetylcholine will then stimulate the release of norepinephrine. But again, B1 wont work alone. I think the combination thiamin, pantothenic acid, vitamin C and b12 is more effective !

Here's that study on Obesity I was talking about. http://en.wikipedia....ic_acid#Obesity

The B5 will increase acetylcholine levels which will have an effect on muscle tone. My experience was similar. I had some muscle tension at first but overall my muscle tone has improved. With this, I went to the gym and my strength was up in most of my lifts. I normally go 3 times per week. Better muscle contration = better strength. Dizzysillyak, You are very good at listening to your body. It most probably is the B5. The was a study showing that B5 favors the burning of stored fats over producing ketone bodies. They tested this on some chinese volunteers and gave them 1000 calorie diets plus a lot of B5. They all stated no feelings of hunger at all despite losing weight. I've noticed the same also. For the last couple of days, I've had my first meal of the day around 5 pm or so. I'm also trying to lose weight at the moment so I'm happy this is helping. By the way, it wasn't the B5 that was interfering with my sleep, it was something else I'm taking.

1 gram a day seems like it's too much. I'm getting some muscle tension and it's interfering with sleep. Going to decrease the dose to 500 mg per day.

I'm using d-calcium pantothenate. Started off with a gram and will increase the dose to tolerance. I'm using it to increase acetylcholine production which I think it's working well. Haven't measured my BP yet but I have noticed that I can go longer without food without feeling hungry like some studies proposed.

I was looking over some of the posts here and some of the same problems keep coming up: -Burning hands and feet of tingling in the legs and arms -Emotional lability (crying for no reason) -intolerance to cold temperature -GI problems -memory problems These were all listed as symptoms of B5 deficiency in the monograph I posted above. What's even more interesting is that B5 is contraindicated with the use of mestinon because it can raise the levels of acetylcholine too high when combined. If they both do the same thing, I'd rather use the vitamin and not the expensive medication that comes with side effects !

If anything, I would think it would help with the POTS. By the way, I came across this research while seeing how B5 helps hair. How wwas the shampoo ? lol

There is one study I found that can lead evidence. It's a little hard to read but essentially, they used SART-stressed mice as a model of dysautonomia and then tested the effects of of a pantothenic acid derivate called hopantenate. They found this drug effective in treating the mice. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=dysautonomia%20pantothenic "SART stressed animals have been reported to exhibit a decreased acetylcholine content" These chronically stressed animals with dysautonomia also implies some sort of adrenal dysfunction, which Vitamin B5 can also treat. "Hopantenate has been shown to exert its improvable effect on scopolamine-induced impairment in the passive avoidance task, and it is suggested that the effect may be due to activating the cholinergic system via the GABAergic system"

I was reading a monograph of vitamin B5 or pantothenic acid. You can read it here. Among the many symptoms caused by a mild deficiency, orthostatic hypotention was one of them. B5 is needed to make acetyl coa. Acetyl coa together with choline make acetylcholine (Ach). This is the main neurotransmitter in the autonomic nervous system. Low Ach levels lead to hypotonia, hypotension, weakness, etc. Mestinon works by increasing levels of Ach so you get the idea. B5 is found is most b complex supplements but in small doses but higher, therapeutic doses may work in this case. Other symptoms of low B5 can include dry eyes, hair falling out, weakness, adrenal fatigue, exercise intolerance, low muscle tone, etc. I used 1 gram this morning and I can feel an increase in muscle tone and concentration. I usually have problems with both. Anyone else try this ?

Ever had an electromyography done? This will tell you exactly where the problem is.. I knew I had dysautonomia but that test helped me figure out what type of nerve damage it was exactly. There's a long list of different types of peripheral and polyneuropathy and all can have an autonomic component but the causes are different. After that test, I learned that I have a distal axonopathy with a sensory, motor and autonomic component. I'm working with a neurologist to find the cause. Most likely, it's viral in origin.

Butcher's broom is an amazing herb. Aside from being an alpha-agonist and causing moderate vasoconstriction, it also inhibits Elastase. Increased levels of elastase is implicated in inflammation, cancer and it causes axonal neuropathy, a type of peripheal neuropathy. I'm using 1 pill 3 times a day. If I use more than 1 pill at once I feel anxiety. Up to now, I haven't come across any tolerance issue. The elastase inhibiting action is important for me because I have a lot of saggy skin and the butcher's broom is doing a fantastic job of tighetening everything up. As far as improving the OH, not so well, but I see some small veins around my feet appear less noticeable with time.