| Derek F 2005-05-18, 9:24 am |
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"jmc" <NOnewsgroupsSPAM@NOjodiBODY.HOMEus> wrote in message
news:3bg7apF6ghqskU1@individual.net...
> Suddenly, without warning, Derek F exclaimed (4/4/2005 10:55 AM):
> Funny, I was just thinking about this last night, after making cookies -
> and of course making sure they were "acceptable" (wouldn't want to bring
> substandard cookies to work!) - shortly before going to bed. I had a
> rapid heartbeat, and a feeling like I couldn't quite catch my breath,
> causing me to breath deeply every couple of normal breaths. No normal
> reflux symptoms though - cough, pain, whatever. I'm on a PPI.
>
> I'm already on a beta-blocker for hbp, as well as tachachardya,
> arrhythmia, and palpitations. Now I'm wondering how much of that might
> have been reflux, as I was put on the bb years before I was diagnosed with
> reflux - but I now know I had symptoms - mostly a cough, some of the other
> non-obvious syptoms - for years before.
>
> Weirdly, I get a noticible heart reaction after eating something
> high-carb, like the popcorn I just finished. Is popcorn a reflux trigger
> for some?
>
> jmc
Are you taking any other meds? Read this article.
Derek.
http://www.healthsentinel.com/news....ist_item&id=811
Jeremy Laurance, "Common drugs 'cause 1,200 heart attack deaths a
year'", Independent, May 11, 2005,
Link:
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/he...sp?story=637445
Millions of patients who take drugs prescribed for ailments from sore
throats to indigestion may risk a heart attack, researchers have
warned.
The drugs, including antibiotics, indigestion remedies and treatments
for mental illness, could cause up to 1,200 heart attack deaths a year
in the UK and 15,000 in Europe and the US, the researchers said.
A study in the Netherlands has found the drugs interfered with the
electrical activity controlling the heartbeat, increasing the risk of
sudden death due to cardiac arrest by three times. Of the seven drugs
studied, two are the antibiotics erythromycin and clarithromycin.
Others on the risk-list are cisapride and domperidone, which are used
to treat gastro-intestinal conditions, and the anti-psychotic
medications chlorpromazine, haloperidol and pimozide.
All the drugs were known to prolong the heart's QTc interval - a
measurement of the electrical activity linked to the contraction of
heart muscle cells. Drugs that increase the QTc interval can cause
life-threatening disruptions of heart rhythms. But the new study is
thought to be the first to investigate links with sudden death.
The findings, which are published in the European Heart Journal,
emerged from a study of 775 cases of sudden heart death between 1995
and 2003. Researchers found that the seven drugs were likely to have
been responsible for 320 of these deaths. This equated to about 1,200
deaths in the UK and 15,000 across Europe and the US.
Dr Bruno Stricker, from the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, who
led the study, said that although the findings were significant, it was
important to keep them in proportion.
Between one and two people in every thousand die from sudden cardiac
arrests a year. Among those who take the drugs the findings show the
risk rises to three in a thousand.
Dr Stricker said: "These drugs are vital treatments for serious
conditions in many cases, so it is essential that patients should not
stop taking them on their own initiative. If they are concerned they
should talk to their doctor."
The risks were highest among those who had been on the drugs for less
than 90 days. The risk also tended to be higher among women than men
and among older patients.
Many drugs had a disrupting effect on the heart's rhythm but sudden
cardiac deaths caused by them were "relatively uncommon", Dr Stricker
said.
He added: "Nevertheless, these findings are important to regulatory
authorities because QTc prolongation is used as a surrogate marker for
the prediction of adverse drug effects."
Cisapride was withdrawn in 2000 because of its effect on the heart.
Some of the other drugs, such as erythromycin and chlorpromazine, are
older drugs that have been supplanted by modern equivalents.
The British Heart Foundation said the findings should be treated with
caution. Professor Peter Weissberg, the medical director, said: "It has
been known for many years that certain drugs change the heart rhythm
.... However, this is still a rare phenomenon, and not all of the deaths
reported in this study can clearly be attributed to the effects of the
drugs.
"Patients, particularly those with heart disease, should not take new
medications without first discussing it with their doctor."
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