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Off meds

T

Thecrazy_1

Well-Known Member
Messages
47
Location
London
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
I have been on Metformin and atorvastatin for about a week and while some symptoms have settled, I have really bad heart palpitations. They start I the evening and last for several hours. The problem is I don't know the cause.
Updated - I stopped all meds yesterday.
 
Last edited:
Thread title says "off meds", but you have been on those two listed for a week. So, are you taking them still or no longer taking them, bit confused by that.

Maybe get your blood pressure checked when you get the palpitations?

I get them some times, but it's a lack of salt for me and usually late at night before bed. A small amount of pink salt fixes that for me.
 
Sorry, I stopped the meds yesterday and took a propanolol tonight and seems better.
 
Why did you stop and did you do so with GP authority?
 
Mike D said:
Why did you stop and did you do so with GP authority?
Click to expand...
It all started when I started the meds and I can't take this discomfort anymore. Hopefully I can reintroduce one at a time.
 
Talk to your health team.
Side effects need checking out.
 
I agree that you need to see a GP about this. Maybe its not a side effect ... Maybe it just happened to coincide with your starting meds? I started getting bad palpitations in my late 20es and didn't know why. They'd always stop again rather suddenly and before I'd get myself to an A&E, let alone a GP, so very difficult to get it diagnosed. I just lived with it till I was admitted to hospital for other reasons, and had electrodes on my chest, and 'luckily' I got an episode on the first night. Turns out my heart is double wired, a congenital condition, but not dangerous and nice to know.
So, do try to find out if it really is a side effect or something else that needs looking into.
 
There could be a number of reasons which should be checked out by your GP.
 
Thanks will try to get to the docs on monday, in the mean time I will pop in to see the pharmacist.
 
I got all sorts of side effects soon after starting the same tablets - but I persevered for another month and got really bad - but I could not report them as I started and stopped two drugs on the same day - therefore no way to make a report, I was told. Probably why they are regarded as safe and effective, as the negatives are not even noted.
I did start to feel suicidal, and I was forgetful, unable to move around without pain, incontinent - I thought that I would soon be unable to function in a normal environment - then in a moment of lucidity I managed to deduce the reason.
I didn't need the tablets in the first place, so I have declined all attempts to get me to take them, and eventually got a note put on my record at the surgery to stop them calling me back to persuade me it was all in my mind.
By palpitation do you mean stopping for a beat or two ? I had that. It definitely started when I took the tablets, but did not stop for some months after. I thought that there was something wrong with the monitor.
 

Atorvastatin made me so forgetful I would forget in the afternoon things people had said to me in the morning. I worked in a university as a manager and felt people were very cruel - treating me as if drug induced forgetfulness was some form of moral failing. When I realised what the problem was I made a point of telling people but it seemed such an unlikely story at the time. I’m completely recovered from them now but it took years. Even now, at my last diabetic review with a gp she started to talk about me taking statins. My lipids, by the way are pretty normal.
 
I was on Pravostatin which increased my hba1c from 48 to 54, gave me dizzy spells and sleep disturbance which, when I had an hours drive to and from work each day was worrying so I came off them. I used to have the statin conversation with my DN at every diabetes review and I politely refused her kind offer of a prescription for a different make or dose of statin. My new GP has now recorded on my notes that I am statin intolerant.
 
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