Cerebal blood flow

Messages
93
Hello, Normalyte, an oral rehydration solution, helps me with this. I'm more functional these days but when I was a lot more ill than now, I'd get this feeling of blood not getting into my brain in a bad way. Drinking 500ml of ORS would remove that feeling.
 

kushami

Senior Member
Messages
759
@onbehalfof , there’s two approaches that I know of.

One is indirect: to boost blood volume or increase venous return to make sure plenty of blood gets to your head. These are basically orthostatic intolerance treatments.

The other is more direct: usually taking vasodilators, or precursors to substances made in the body that can increase vasodilation. There’s quite a few threads with good info on this if you have a bit of a search. And they also mention a few other things, not necessarily vasodilators, that might help.
 

kushami

Senior Member
Messages
759
Nimodipine is the one vasodilator that is selective for cerebral blood vessels (or at least the only one known so far). Recent studies have found that the selective action may not be quite as pronounced as was previously thought, but it still seems to be the best option.

Using general vasodilators has the downside of possibly making orthostatic intolerance worse. And even nimodipine has some general effects, i.e. it doesn’t work only on the brain.

It’s probable that some people with ME/CFS can benefit from vasoconstriction in the body and vasodilation in the head. A bit tricky, but could perhaps be achieved by waist-high compression tights and careful dosing of nimodipine.

However, there are other substances that seem to increase cerebral blood flow by other methods. So they could be more suitable for those who have orthostatic intolerance. I have not really looked into these, but there are many good threads on the topic here if you have a dig around.
 

ilivewithcfs

Senior Member
Messages
203
Sorry for my ignorance but what symptoms of ME/CFS are helped/improved by this medication?
If you are asking about nimodipine, then it helped me a great deal with brain fog, fatigue and anhedonia. I had to give it up eventually, because it gave me unmanageable insomnia, but it doesn't mean it will happen to you. I react with insomnia to 90% of meds that I try. My brain is weird like that. My hopes for improvement were crushed once again.
Some people have great results with this drug, so good luck.
 
Messages
17
@onbehalfof , there’s two approaches that I know of.

One is indirect: to boost blood volume or increase venous return to make sure plenty of blood gets to your head. These are basically orthostatic intolerance treatments.

The other is more direct: usually taking vasodilators, or precursors to substances made in the body that can increase vasodilation. There’s quite a few threads with good info on this if you have a bit of a search. And they also mention a few other things, not necessarily vasodilators, that might help.
Thank you Kushami that's very helpful. I've searched the group for threads on orthostatic intolerance (which I have) but as I've severe MCS I'm unable to take meds so maybe it's natural vasodilators or precursors I need to look for if they are out there? :)
 

kushami

Senior Member
Messages
759
@onbehalfof , there are a few supplements with vasodilating properties and also precursors, although these might also prove difficult for mast cell reactions. I’ll have a look for some recent threads and post links.

If you have orthostatic intolerance, it can be a bit of a juggling act. On the one hand, you want to squeeze the blood supply upwards (with vasoconstrictors, compression garments, or by increasing blood volume), and on the other hand, you want to enable blood to flow into the brain easily (medications or strategies that increase cerebral perfusion).

So you can find yourself in the odd position of wanting to vasoconstrict your lower body and abdomen and vasodilate your head!

You can do the first part by wearing compression garments on the lower body and increasing salt and fluid intake (or having a sachet of oral rehydration solution).

Then you could add substances that increase cerebral perfusion without specifically being vasodilators, or substances that tend to affect the brain more than the body, although I can’t think of any right now. Maybe something that’s anti-inflammatory or antiplatelet? I am sure other folk will have ideas.
 
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kushami

Senior Member
Messages
759
A thread about vasodilators (of all sorts):
https://forums.phoenixrising.me/thr...odilators-effective-in-treating-me-cfs.91746/

A thread about vasodilating supplements and precursors:
https://forums.phoenixrising.me/threads/vasodilating-supplements.91866/

BUT as I mentioned, vasodilators may not be good for orthostatic intolerance if they affect the whole body.

So do poke around here a bit more. Other folk should be able to advise more on the “cerebral perfusion without vasodilation” concept.
 
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