Jesse2233
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A recent retrospective study of 49 POTS patients showed positive results for ivabradine (a funny channel antagonist that decreases heart rate and the amount of cardiac oxygen consumption):
There is also an ongoing clinical trial (RCT) for the drug's use in POTS being conducted by Dr Pam Taub, M.D. at UCSD: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03182725
There are quite a few blogs and Facebook posts from POTS and dysautonomia patients calling ivabradine their "personal miracle drug" or their "magic bullet" that gave them their life back. This seems to coincide with what my POTS cardiologist told me. There also seems to be a large cohort of patients who have not heard of ivabradine.
Of course many, many POTS symptoms overlap with ME/CFS, and many patients carry both diagnoses.
I should note that ivabradine is unlikely to treat the cause of a POTS patient's condition and as it's likely just treating a downstream symptoms. That said if it restores someone to functional status or prevents downstream vascular or neurological damage, then it's worth taking.
I should also note that a subset of patients have adverse reactions to ivabradine, and many cardiologists (including mine) recommend POTS patients try it in their office before using it at home.
My personal experience with ivabradine was positive, but I stopped taking it to better assess ongoing immune modulating treatments that have a better chance at addressing potential core etiology.
I've included a poll to see how people here have reacted. Comment below with any details.
Forty-nine patients (47 females, 95.9%) received ivabradine. The average age was 35.1 ± 10.35 years. The most common symptoms were palpitations and lightheadedness and both improved significantly, 88.4% and 76.1% response rate, respectively. A total of 38 patients reported improvement in their symptoms. In addition, ivabradine resulted in an objective decrease in sitting and standing heart rate (78.1 ± 10.7 vs 72.5 ± 7.6, P-value: 0.01) and (107.4 ± 14.1 vs 95.1 ± 13.7, P-value: < 0.001), respectively, with no significant change in blood pressure.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pace.13182/full
There is also an ongoing clinical trial (RCT) for the drug's use in POTS being conducted by Dr Pam Taub, M.D. at UCSD: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03182725
There are quite a few blogs and Facebook posts from POTS and dysautonomia patients calling ivabradine their "personal miracle drug" or their "magic bullet" that gave them their life back. This seems to coincide with what my POTS cardiologist told me. There also seems to be a large cohort of patients who have not heard of ivabradine.
Of course many, many POTS symptoms overlap with ME/CFS, and many patients carry both diagnoses.
I should note that ivabradine is unlikely to treat the cause of a POTS patient's condition and as it's likely just treating a downstream symptoms. That said if it restores someone to functional status or prevents downstream vascular or neurological damage, then it's worth taking.
I should also note that a subset of patients have adverse reactions to ivabradine, and many cardiologists (including mine) recommend POTS patients try it in their office before using it at home.
My personal experience with ivabradine was positive, but I stopped taking it to better assess ongoing immune modulating treatments that have a better chance at addressing potential core etiology.
I've included a poll to see how people here have reacted. Comment below with any details.
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