Prescribed drugs - mitigating the side effects

SteveR_100Milers

With a great deal of exasperation I have suddenly realised Im truning into a pill popper without even setting out to be:

High blood lipids mean Funofibrate daily forever, and arvostatins same. Both wreck physical performance, but I have read that CoQ10 supplements help, particularly with statins, which apparently destroy the bodies natural sources.
Bladder problems mean I have to take Flomaxtra (tamsulosin hyrdrochloride) which results in dizziness on standing up (bit like the evening after a long hard ride...). Hell knows that thats going to do, anyone got any advice on diet / supplements that might help.

In fact maybe we should have a sticky post to list out clinically prescribed drugs and side effects, and ways to mitigate those effects. Feel free to add any and any advice.

abi26

dont ever let anyone prescribe quetiapine to a cyclist.
they lower BP and blood sugar levels, dehydrate and just arent good at all.....

Mike Willcox1

SteveR_100Milers wrote:

With a great deal of exasperation I have suddenly realised Im truning into a pill popper without even setting out to be:

High blood lipids mean Funofibrate daily forever, and arvostatins same. Both wreck physical performance, but I have read that CoQ10 supplements help, particularly with statins, which apparently destroy the bodies natural sources.
Bladder problems mean I have to take Flomaxtra (tamsulosin hyrdrochloride) which results in dizziness on standing up (bit like the evening after a long hard ride...). Hell knows that thats going to do, anyone got any advice on diet / supplements that might help.

In fact maybe we should have a sticky post to list out clinically prescribed drugs and side effects, and ways to mitigate those effects. Feel free to add any and any advice.

Hi Steve

After I came out of hospital I was proscribed the usual stuff as per the norm with cardiac disease, although I refused to take the statins I did take some other stuff for a time, Ramipril and Clopidogrel. My blood pressure is quite low and my Resting HR was 42. (At one time during the night while I was in hospital my RHR went down to 37 and got them all worried).

Had an echosound scan of my heart yesterday and will see the consultant with results quite soon I think.

I found I was getting a bit dizzy so I've stopped taking anything apart from 75mg Aspirin a day and now I feel OK again. I've got some speed in my legs already which is amazing but I won't be racing again this year. I reckon that the two blocked arteries they found were missed the first time round as they couldn't see anything wrong with me at first.

Alex_Simmons/RST

This is really something for you to discuss with your doctor, who apart from yourself is the only one with your complete medial history and knowledge of your needs.

Mike Willcox1

Alex_Simmons/RST wrote:

This is really something for you to discuss with your doctor, who apart from yourself is the only one with your complete medial history and knowledge of your needs.

Are you having a laugh? You're better off doing your own research. If you are an athlete training hard they haven't got a clue. Your faith in GP's is misplaced.

OffTheBackAdam

It is something that should be discussed with your GP.
Unfortunately, they wouldn't recognise a fit person when they saw one.
It really depends on what other risk factors you have, how high is your LDL? What's your HDL level, Triglycerides? Familly history of CHD, age, BP, smoking.
GPs are very much target driven these days, if the "guidelines" say "Treat everyone who's TC is >6mmol/l, then they'll do it!
Ask your GP, what exactly is my risk of heart attack/stroke, so many scare stories have "It will double/treble your risk of...." when 2x or 3x SFA is still SFA!

SteveR_100Milers

Discussed this at length with GP, I'm lucky in that he isnt your typical medicine by numbers. He actually suggested I conducted a pseudo clinical trial with CoQ10 to verify it did have any benefit (so as not to waste money).
I'm taking 60mg a day in the form of Holland & Barrats standard stuff in a bottle, i would imagine its bioavailability is pants, but its better than none. when I do a month off I'll see if there is any difference, not that taking 10mg of atorvastatin seems to make much physical difference in the first place...Adma, my trig levels were 14mol/ml but the fenufibrates brought them down to under 1. LDL was 6.5, which GP wouldnt normally worry about but because I have the familial hypertryglyceridaemia, he thinks I should take a statin. Its brought my LDL level from 6.5 to 5.1 which is fine. Bearing in mind that 12 months of diet / lifestyle change (soya instead of milk, oats, loads of fruit and veg, started nike racing again etc etc) cut out the pies and crap, and my LDL went up from 6.0 to 6.5

There must be loads of others (cyclists) on statins - would be intersted to know if they have tried CoQ10 aswell. I think I am also slightly deficient in some of the B vits so will add another exsperiment with those.

Mike Willcox1

SteveR_100Milers wrote:

There must be loads of others (cyclists) on statins - would be intersted to know if they have tried CoQ10 aswell. I think I am also slightly deficient in some of the B vits so will add another exsperiment with those.

I took CoQ10 for a while but gave up as it I didn't notice any difference. The body will not absorb anything taken as a supplements as well as it would from food sources anyway. My advice Steve is to save your money.