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Hi everyone,
I need help because I went to the Emergency Room 2 times in this past week and I think it's related to taking Sam-e. Right before this happened, I was taking 400 mg of Sam-e for a bit over a week - it was a new brand of Sam-e, and I was to taking 200 mg of Sam-e for 2 months of another brand. I'm not sure if I over-methylated or overdosed on Sam-e. Or it could be something else entirely. I'm open to any suggestions or advice or referrals.
The ER doctors took EKGs, urine tests, blood tests, X-rayed my chest... At first, they said they aren't sure what is causing it. Then they concluded that I was being emotional- that's the cause they told me. I'm very confident, very certain that it's not an emotional response. I told them about the supplements I've been taking and they ask what Sam-e was and didn't go beyond hearing that it was a supplement- they didn't investigate further on that. Instead they recommended I go to a therapist, and follow up.
I feel very sick if I drink alcohol, so I don't drink, don't do drugs, and don't smoke; I eat healthily and I'm in my late 30s.
My blood pressure has fluctuated and although it seems within acceptable range, my physical symptoms have made me housebound due to feeling sick everyday and prevented me from even driving- my life feels stunted right now.
At certain points my blood pressure was 143/91 on the day I called 911 to go to the ER. The next night, I had a 94/62 reading. The next day, I had the 2nd ER visit when I had a blood pressure of 133/91 and 65 bmp. Normally, my blood pressure is at around 96/64 for a while, but I didn't have these negative symptoms back then. I use a WelchAllyn upper-arm cuff BP monitor and I've been monitoring the low BP for about a year. This is a dramatic change for my body. And it quickly happened.
I could only sleep for a few hours a night (about 4 hours) and the whole day I'm totally wired and alert, maybe even restless. I want to sleep again but I can't seem to fall asleep; I just don't feel sleepy. Mood wise, I'm keeping calm, laughing, and engaged by watching lots of my favorite comedy series on Netflix- it helps to distract me from the symptoms and it's fun!
But what's not fun are the other symptoms: feeling like my head is full of pressure, shortness of breath, labored breathing, very fatigued, sometimes feeling like blacking out, my neck is tight, my neck feels like someone is choking me out but I can still breath (maybe it's the blood vessels in my neck constricting and/or it's because of my resting BP, the diastolic pressure), sometimes I'm dizzy, tingling in my fingers and at its worst my toes as well, my heart feels heavy and like its working too hard even while resting, my chest feels tight, my body is slightly to moderately shaky (but not from any negative emotions bc I'm still smiling while watching my shows and still slightly shaking), sometimes my throat gets tight and I have a hard time swallowing food like I normally do, pounding inside my upper chest area, my eyesight gets slightly blurry or slightly fuzzy (I wear contact lens designed for astigmatism), my eyes feel pressure or warm, my teeth feel crowded and pressured especially the upper front teeth and oddly also it feels like when sucking on own teeth, my lips and tongue feel tingly, my hands and feet are cold but my body and neck and head are hot, can't focus like I normally can, and I keep on waking up with only 4 hours of sleep and can't nap. At first, the weird and seemingly dangerous internal physical sensations caused my bmp to spike from being nervous and anxious about all the suddenly new bodily sensations, but since the 1st ER visit, I've recognized the sensations/symptoms are not an immediate threat, and so I keep calm with comedy shows, breathing exercises, mindfulness techniques, meditation, and constantly texting with friends and family.
Currently, I found that if I stay in my air conditioned living room at 68 degrees F and try to lounge on my couch up against the couch's arm, I can kind of tolerate these horrible symptoms. The intensity of my symptoms goes up higher as the temperature moves above 70 degrees F. Also, I noticed that if I slowly drink very cold water, my symptoms temporarily improve and feel better, especially with my head, lower neck, and chest/heart regions.
I was taking Sam-e because I assumed I was undermethylated and had high histamine. I thought that because my seasonal respiratory allergies turned year round, and I’m highly adversely reactive and intolerant of fermented drinks and food, amongst other indicators. I’ve been trying to help myself by taking digestive enzymes when eating, and taking supplements for 4 months such as P-5-P (B6), Vit C powder, magnesium, Zinc, glutamine powder, inositol, taurine (, MSM powder, gaba, and sometimes NAC, along with Zyrtec and Benadryl everyday (I haven’t been sleepy with 3 caps of Benadryl (25 mg each) for the past 1 month). Last 3 month, I was also talking 5-HTP, and tyrosine only in the morning. Last month, irregularly taking B1 (thiamine 100mg) and niacinamide (500mg).
The last week before my ER visit, I started taking a good amount of Alpha Lipoic Acid (thioctic acid 300 mg, sometimes 2x a day) with Biotin (330 mcg, sometimes 2x a day) , Creatine powder (around 3 grams a day), and 400 mg of that new brand and higher dose of Sam-e everyday. They were all new supplements. I noticed that I was having diarrhea for every bowel movement everyday and I couldn’t sleep much sometimes staying awake all night during the whole week- that insomnia progressively got worse. I did notice my BP sometimes was rising a little bit during that week and I was pleased, thinking maybe adding the new supplements helped the regimen. The night before my 1st ER visit, I couldn't sleep at all. And on that Monday, that's when I had to call for an ambulance right after driving my car for a few minutes in 95 degrees F weather.
Thank you for reading my post. I'm really at my wit's end trying to solve this problem. I'm very grateful and humbled for being able to connect with a community that might be able to help me solve this challenge and where I can candidly share my struggles with you.
The fact it was so sudden and affecting my whole body and brain makes it urgent for me to figure it out soon because so far all of my health care providers including the followups say their tests are not showing anything wrong and they can't figure it out, except thinking that it's stemming from my mind. And it's been a week now.
Thanks again in advance! Keeping the faith.
I need help because I went to the Emergency Room 2 times in this past week and I think it's related to taking Sam-e. Right before this happened, I was taking 400 mg of Sam-e for a bit over a week - it was a new brand of Sam-e, and I was to taking 200 mg of Sam-e for 2 months of another brand. I'm not sure if I over-methylated or overdosed on Sam-e. Or it could be something else entirely. I'm open to any suggestions or advice or referrals.
The ER doctors took EKGs, urine tests, blood tests, X-rayed my chest... At first, they said they aren't sure what is causing it. Then they concluded that I was being emotional- that's the cause they told me. I'm very confident, very certain that it's not an emotional response. I told them about the supplements I've been taking and they ask what Sam-e was and didn't go beyond hearing that it was a supplement- they didn't investigate further on that. Instead they recommended I go to a therapist, and follow up.
I feel very sick if I drink alcohol, so I don't drink, don't do drugs, and don't smoke; I eat healthily and I'm in my late 30s.
My blood pressure has fluctuated and although it seems within acceptable range, my physical symptoms have made me housebound due to feeling sick everyday and prevented me from even driving- my life feels stunted right now.
At certain points my blood pressure was 143/91 on the day I called 911 to go to the ER. The next night, I had a 94/62 reading. The next day, I had the 2nd ER visit when I had a blood pressure of 133/91 and 65 bmp. Normally, my blood pressure is at around 96/64 for a while, but I didn't have these negative symptoms back then. I use a WelchAllyn upper-arm cuff BP monitor and I've been monitoring the low BP for about a year. This is a dramatic change for my body. And it quickly happened.
I could only sleep for a few hours a night (about 4 hours) and the whole day I'm totally wired and alert, maybe even restless. I want to sleep again but I can't seem to fall asleep; I just don't feel sleepy. Mood wise, I'm keeping calm, laughing, and engaged by watching lots of my favorite comedy series on Netflix- it helps to distract me from the symptoms and it's fun!
But what's not fun are the other symptoms: feeling like my head is full of pressure, shortness of breath, labored breathing, very fatigued, sometimes feeling like blacking out, my neck is tight, my neck feels like someone is choking me out but I can still breath (maybe it's the blood vessels in my neck constricting and/or it's because of my resting BP, the diastolic pressure), sometimes I'm dizzy, tingling in my fingers and at its worst my toes as well, my heart feels heavy and like its working too hard even while resting, my chest feels tight, my body is slightly to moderately shaky (but not from any negative emotions bc I'm still smiling while watching my shows and still slightly shaking), sometimes my throat gets tight and I have a hard time swallowing food like I normally do, pounding inside my upper chest area, my eyesight gets slightly blurry or slightly fuzzy (I wear contact lens designed for astigmatism), my eyes feel pressure or warm, my teeth feel crowded and pressured especially the upper front teeth and oddly also it feels like when sucking on own teeth, my lips and tongue feel tingly, my hands and feet are cold but my body and neck and head are hot, can't focus like I normally can, and I keep on waking up with only 4 hours of sleep and can't nap. At first, the weird and seemingly dangerous internal physical sensations caused my bmp to spike from being nervous and anxious about all the suddenly new bodily sensations, but since the 1st ER visit, I've recognized the sensations/symptoms are not an immediate threat, and so I keep calm with comedy shows, breathing exercises, mindfulness techniques, meditation, and constantly texting with friends and family.
Currently, I found that if I stay in my air conditioned living room at 68 degrees F and try to lounge on my couch up against the couch's arm, I can kind of tolerate these horrible symptoms. The intensity of my symptoms goes up higher as the temperature moves above 70 degrees F. Also, I noticed that if I slowly drink very cold water, my symptoms temporarily improve and feel better, especially with my head, lower neck, and chest/heart regions.
I was taking Sam-e because I assumed I was undermethylated and had high histamine. I thought that because my seasonal respiratory allergies turned year round, and I’m highly adversely reactive and intolerant of fermented drinks and food, amongst other indicators. I’ve been trying to help myself by taking digestive enzymes when eating, and taking supplements for 4 months such as P-5-P (B6), Vit C powder, magnesium, Zinc, glutamine powder, inositol, taurine (, MSM powder, gaba, and sometimes NAC, along with Zyrtec and Benadryl everyday (I haven’t been sleepy with 3 caps of Benadryl (25 mg each) for the past 1 month). Last 3 month, I was also talking 5-HTP, and tyrosine only in the morning. Last month, irregularly taking B1 (thiamine 100mg) and niacinamide (500mg).
The last week before my ER visit, I started taking a good amount of Alpha Lipoic Acid (thioctic acid 300 mg, sometimes 2x a day) with Biotin (330 mcg, sometimes 2x a day) , Creatine powder (around 3 grams a day), and 400 mg of that new brand and higher dose of Sam-e everyday. They were all new supplements. I noticed that I was having diarrhea for every bowel movement everyday and I couldn’t sleep much sometimes staying awake all night during the whole week- that insomnia progressively got worse. I did notice my BP sometimes was rising a little bit during that week and I was pleased, thinking maybe adding the new supplements helped the regimen. The night before my 1st ER visit, I couldn't sleep at all. And on that Monday, that's when I had to call for an ambulance right after driving my car for a few minutes in 95 degrees F weather.
Thank you for reading my post. I'm really at my wit's end trying to solve this problem. I'm very grateful and humbled for being able to connect with a community that might be able to help me solve this challenge and where I can candidly share my struggles with you.
The fact it was so sudden and affecting my whole body and brain makes it urgent for me to figure it out soon because so far all of my health care providers including the followups say their tests are not showing anything wrong and they can't figure it out, except thinking that it's stemming from my mind. And it's been a week now.
Thanks again in advance! Keeping the faith.