Re: Chronic Tachycardia Problem

[Guest guest]

, you might research CoQ10. Studies have shown that it is a useful

adjunct to heart related diseases

'In the most recent and largest study to date, a total of 2664 patients in

New York Heart Association (NYHA) class II and II were enrolled in an open

study in Italy. The daily doseage of CoQ10 was 50 to 150 mg orally for 90

days, with the majority of patients (78% receiving 100mg per day). After

three months of CoQ10 treatment, the persentages of patients with

improvement in clinical sign and symptoms were as follows:

Cyanosis (purple hue of skin), 78.1%

Edema (fluid retention), 78.6%

Pulmonary edema, 77.8%

enlargement of lever area, 49.3%

venous congestion, 71.81%

shortness of breath, 52.7%

heart palpitations, 75.4%

sweating, 79.8%

subjective arrhythmia, 63.4%

Insomnia, 62.8%

vertigo, 73.1

nighttime urination, 53.6%

Improvements in at least three symptoms occurred in 54% of the patients,

indicating a significantly improved quality of life with CoQ10

supplementation.' Baggio E, et al., Italian multicenter study on the safety

and efficacy of coenzyme Q10 as adjunctive therapy in heart failure. CoQ10

Drug Surveillaence Investigators. Mol Aspects Med 15(suppl), S287-S294,

1994.

You might also want to research Magnesium-McLean RM, Magnesium and its

theraputic uses: A Review Am J Med 96, 63-76, 1994; Purvis JR and Movahed A,

Magnesium disorders and cardiovascular disease. Clin Cardiol 15, 556-568,

1992.

Also research L-carnitine, vitamine E, B6, Selenium, Vit C, essential fatty

acids, and copper.

Godd Luck!!

Charlie Newkerk, C.S.C.S.

Rockledge, Fl

Chronic Tachycardia Problem

> Dear Supertrainers

>

> I have been thrilled to find this super group here at Yahoo; I have

> been out of the training look for about 5 years due to a cardiac

> problem that has been resolved but am now facing another issue.

>

> I cannot seem to shake chronic tachycardia, and when I workout, my

> strength has returned already-in months- to previous highs, but I do

> aerobics and see no effects- no weight loss and no improvement in

> tachycardia.

>

> I always have the option of taking a Beta blocker, but I also suffer

> epilepsy-which initially triggered the heart issue- and I am loathe

> to add another medication to my lifelong regimen.]

>

> My colleagues in Medicine do not work out at all -my immediate ones at

> least- so they don't have an understanding of the frustration dealing

> with this; does anyone here have experience with cardiac issues and

> training, or any supplement that would help with this?

>

> Love you all!

>

> Moyers MD, PhD candidate

> Yale University College of Medicine

>

>

>

>

> Modify or cancel your subscription here:

>

> http://groups.yahoo.com/mygroups

>

> Don't forget to sign all letters with full name and city of residence if

you

> wish them to be published!

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Myers wrote:

<<I cannot seem to shake chronic tachycardia, and when I workout, my strength

has returned already-in months

to previous highs, but I do aerobics and see no effects- no weight loss and no

improvement in tachycardia.

I always have the option of taking a Beta blocker, but I also suffer

epilepsy-which initially triggered the heart

issue- and I am loathe to add another medication to my lifelong regimen.]>>

**** I read this and showed it to my husband Jim, who was very interested and

agreed to reply. He says:

In replying to an M.D., I don't need to remind him of the necessity to take any

response regarding this type of

question in the context of being anything other than the passing on of a

description of personal experience and ideas.

No personal advice is given here, nor is any intended.

I am so glad that you wrote about this on ST. Coincidentally, this very

afternoon, when Rosemary brought this to my

attention, I was going over some previous notes I had prepared on this subject.

My old lifting partner and close friend

is going to give birth to her first child next month. She is a epileptic and

has been off of her medication (topiramate,

brand name Topamax) for the entirety of her pregnancy. So far she has not had

any seizures. However she has had a

lot of visual auras, and, in the last few days they have been of great frequency

due to considerable stress over moving

her household.

What I was going over was something I had prepared for the research psychologist

I see monthly as part of a pain study

at the V.A. Hospital connected to UCLA Medical School in West Los Angeles. Due

to serious head injuries I have dealt with

major head pain, very minor seizures and extreme migraines (including very

dramatic auras) for over 30 years. In

addition to that, I have had high blood pressure that, as far as the doctors

know, is entirely related to post traumatic stress

and pain stress. In addition to my pain meds, I am on several blood pressure

meds including a beta blocker (Atenol,

75 mgs/day).

The pain study I am in involves the prolonged use of time-released morphine for

chronic pain that cannot be treated in any

other way. In the middle of this study, a very sharp experienced doctor from

UCLA connected me with one of their young

research Neurologists. The Neurologist started me on topiramate after

diagnosing me with chronic post traumatic

migraine. The initial dose was small and we are steadily working up to a

maintenance dose which, if things go well, I will

probably remain on for the rest of my life. The results so far have been

nothing short of miraculous. This is the first real

success of a positive nature I have experienced. All other successes have been

either short-term or somewhat of a band-aid.

It is also having an effect on aches and pains from injuries and arthritis as

well as assisting me in losing fat (a side effect

of Topamax) which I needed to do.

The doctors don't know, and given our " off-label " use of topiramate, whether our

success is combination-related or simply

due to the use of the topiramate. My hunch is that it's the combination

treatment since some people have not responded well

when topiramate has been given to them for chronic pain.

One thing we do know is that we are having no problems in combining the

topiramate and Atenol. At the last meeting, after

answering the usual study questions, we talked about what we had read about

combination therapies. I told the researcher

about a recent article that appeared in TIME Magazine, mentioning the use of

beta blockers and seizure medications for

treating chronic migraine.

He asked if I would take time to trace the sources behind the TIME article,

which I did. I have included below my e-mail back

to the researcher regarding my findings. When reading this post, please

understand that we are on a very informal basis.

I spoke frankly and critically about one of the writers and made statements that

would not normally be public because we are

essentially talking amongst friends. The main intent of the e-mail was to give

the people at the Pain Clinic an article with

references they could use to tie back and compare with their own research.

Good luck to you in finding a solution to your unique problem. Please post back

and let us know what you do about your situation.

I, for one, am very interested. There is not that much difference between some

aspects of migraine and epilepsy, at least in

the pre-attack phase.

Although I had thought about removing some of the following comments because

they are personal, I realized that all pain is

personal, so I have left everything in. Without further comment, the email:

###

Near the end of our monthly Pain Clinic appointment, you asked me if I would

mail you the links on combination treatments

I had come across for head pain and migraine prevention.

I first saw a short article for Time Magazine's YOUR HEALTH, July 1, 2002, " How

to Prevent a Migraine " , by Sanjay Gupta, MD.

Dr. Gupta is a Neurosurgeon. Since two weeks have passed (the time for the

article to be on the Net for free) I have attached a

copy of it for you in " PDF " format. That format is usually readable in any

computer. Pardon my editorial and bias opinion, but

Dr. Gupta would have done better to stick to surgery. His " pop " medicine on CNN

and TIME is sometimes only saved by the hard

working staff reporters around him. I think that is exactly what happened in

this case. Gupta wrote the article about the use of

Botox for migraines (the darling drug of all Hollywood) and the staff stepped in

and added the first two paragraphs that saved the

article from being pure fluff. Just my opinion. Having read a number of

Gupta's articles, my opinion of him lowers with

each new piece.

The free link one to Time's archive has expired so it has been replaced with a

brief excerpt --

<<-- Half the 28 million Americans who get migraines never see a doctor about

them. That is a shame, because not only are

there plenty of drugs that can alleviate the often debilitating pain of

migraines, but there are also whole classes of medications

that can prevent them in the first place. These include beta and calcium-channel

blockers that improve the flow of blood to the

brain, anti-depressants that regulate levels of the brain chemical serotonin and

various anti-inflammatory drugs and anti-seizure

medicines (epilepsy and migraines, for reasons no one yet understands, seem to

have common origins).

Unfortunately, a large group of migraine sufferers — perhaps as many as 9

million in the U.S. alone — find no protection or

relief in today's drugs. That is why there was so much excitement at the

American Headache Society last week in Seattle about

the news that these so-called refractory migraine patients respond well to

treatment with Hollywood's new favorite drug:

botox.-->>

That said, I am also including the substance behind the excellent drug

treatments mentioned in the first two paragraphs. Perhaps

the best reference is an article from the National Institutes of Health (link

below). All of this article is of interest and is included.

Beginning on page 16 and going on for several pages are preventive treatments.

This is almost everything we talked about and more.

Opiate Analgesics are discussed as a combination treatment in acute conditions

on page 15.

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/doctors/OP129A_Clinician_fa.pdf

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/news_and_events/migraine_workshop_2000.htm

(the source page reference for the pdf article)

The good thing about this article is that is has extensive documentation. It

comes as close as possible to what you asked for in the

way of giving someone a starting point for further work in this area. The

references should cover every drug used.

Missing are what you need in the way of combination drug studies with double

blind protocols and all that. I don't think anyone has

done them, or will do them. Maybe I am off base here, but if the FDA is not

approving combination drug therapies so what is the

incentive to fund studies? Another thing that is missing is a general consensus

for the use of Opiate drugs for preventive

(longer term) treatment. There is a strong movement against the use of opiates

in the treatment of migraines, acute and chronic.

The prevailing view is that it causes rebound. From the JAMA amednews.com :

http://www.ama-assn.org/sci-pubs/amnews/pick_01/hlsa1015.htm

This rebound bias is frightening. Frightening enough for me to carry on a bit

about it. Sometimes the AMA remind me of the

Puritans (or worse -- I'm trying to be nice). The AMA does grant that a small

few do not get rebound -- but their attitude seems

to be " so what? " , ignore them, they don't matter. I have never had rebound in

my life and the few times someone, believing my

pain was all rebound, has taken me off all analgesics, have been a nightmare

like none other. I put up with it for eight weeks

once. Never again.

The individual we discussed (name removed for the ST post) working with my

Neurologist is one of the " Rebound Troupers " .

His policy is they can't do anything for someone on an opiate -- nothing at all.

He tried to discharge me from Neurology behind

my Neurologist's back -- but that is not your concern. Simply be aware that the

view of Opiates in treatment of head pain,

headache, and migraine borders more on religious crusade rather than sound

medicine. My Neurologist is aware of the work

you went to get me in to the Clinic and he took care of the matter in a

definitive way. Enough of that.

The interest you have shown arranging my combination pain therapy while at the

same time maintaining the focus on your

morphine study has more than made my year. I hope that at least one reference

or links is of use to you and your colleagues.

Vernon

####

Of course, we would appreciate any comments from anyone on the list as to the

above.

Rosemary Vernon, Editor

www.dolfzine.com

On-line Fitness

Marina del Rey, CA

IronRoses@...

http://www.chuckietechie.com