• Welcome to Phoenix Rising!

    Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of and finding treatments for complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia (FM), long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.

    To become a member, simply click the Register button at the top right.

Losartan -- TGF-b Inhibitor for ME // Any success?

Jesse2233

Senior Member
Messages
1,942
Location
Southern California
In light of the new cytokine study out of Stanford showing consistently elevated TGF-b for ME patients, I was wondering if anyone has had coincidental symptom reduction using the blood pressure medication Losartan?

Dr Shoemaker uses it as the last step of his CIRS protocol to bring down TGF-b, and Dr Goldstein used it with CFS patients as well.

I should of course add that we don't know whether trying to lower TGF-b would be positive, negative, or neutral given that it's causal relationship with the disease is not clear. TGF-b could very well be protective
 

kyzcreig

Senior Member
Messages
141
Location
Houston
I notice benefits but they don't last.

In my case I have elevated IL-17, indicating elevated TH-17 differentiation (R). The combination of TGF-b and IL-6 induce differentiation of naive T cells to TH-17. I also have elevated PBMC IL-6. So, it would stand to reason Losartan is reducing differentiation of naive T cells to TH-17. And it does feel that way. At least for a while, until, most likely, my body compensates.
upload_2017-8-1_17-37-29.png
 
Messages
39
I took Losartan for a month to bring down my TGF-Beta levels. I also took Pentoxifylline. My TGF-Beta during this time went down for 9000 to 3500. Felt no other effects than that.
 

JohnCB

Immoderate
Messages
351
Location
England
I have been on Losartan Potassium 50mg/Hydrochlorothiazide 12.5mg 1/day combination pill for a long time. This replaced the candesartan that I had been taking for years prior to that. I have never felt aware of a specific effect on my ME. On the whole, I am taking a bunch of pills for various reasons other than ME and my overall impression is that my drug cocktail makes my ME worse.