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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 8 of 8. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by d0pamine on July 2, 2007, at 3:19:13
As many of you know, I'm a huge EMSAM fan as it utterly changed my life, but it has not been completely without side effects as I've developed some fairly nasty insomnia. However after months of sleeping no more than 3 to 4 hours / night I have accidentally found the key to sleeping as many hours as I have time for (likely due to my cumulative net deprivation). While trying to figure out the source of my hypertension by treating it with various herbs / minerals / vitamins. I tried various forms of potassium. Potassium Citrate is the only form that I've found to have any impact on my blood pressure at all and it does pretty good, however in the area of insomnia it does more than pretty good, it eliminates it altogether. By taking 1400 mg / day Potassium CITRATE (split dose) I can go from sleeping 3 hours / night to a guaranteed 6 8 10 12 or whatever I have time for, and for the past 3 weeks it's been 100% consistent and just to make sure it was the potassium I've stopped it on a couple occasions and without fail I pop right back to 3 to 4 hours. I should note that should you be interested in this solution that you should discuss it with a doctor as potassium is mega-dangerous if you have kidney or any of a number of other problems as it can result in cardiac arrest pretty much instantly. However being severely deficient in it will kill you as well. Best of luck.
Posted by Sigismund on July 2, 2007, at 3:30:21
In reply to EMSAM Insomnia No More, posted by d0pamine on July 2, 2007, at 3:19:13
I wonder why this is?
Posted by d0pamine on July 2, 2007, at 6:01:26
In reply to Re: EMSAM Insomnia No More, posted by Sigismund on July 2, 2007, at 3:30:21
Hypokalemia is apparently a potential Selegiline side effect, and one of the more commonly experienced symptoms of suboptimal potassium levels is reportedly insomnia. (as cellular potassium levels are apparently highly involved in sleep regulation) Evidently this has been the set of conditions that I've met up with. I should further note however that since hypokalemia was only reported in 2% of trial patients, this condition is likely greatly dependant on individual body chemistry and possibly to a larger extent, dietary potassium intake.
Posted by Phillipa on July 2, 2007, at 11:32:51
In reply to Re: EMSAM Insomnia No More, posted by d0pamine on July 2, 2007, at 6:01:26
That's a very important precaution you mentioned as potassium and sodium regulate the heart. I'm glad you found something to relieve your insomnia and I'm sure your doc knows about your new regime. Love Phillipa ps everything is getting so technical. What ever happened to just taking a med? For any condition
Posted by d0pamine on July 2, 2007, at 12:00:21
In reply to Re: EMSAM Insomnia No More » d0pamine, posted by Phillipa on July 2, 2007, at 11:32:51
I personally place the responsibility for my health in the hands of no man and have little confidence that there is anyone willing and or capable of putting forth the time and effort required to properly research my conditions and the available treatment options to the extent that I’m willing to for myself. Putting aside the historically proven incompetence of my current physician and assuming him to be a competent knowledgeable caring professional, the nature of treating the quantity of patients that any managed care physician has to treat leaves them with far less capacity (if any capacity at all) to research any given situation involving any given patient, than I have to research for myself, even factoring for educational differences. That’s not to say that my physician isn’t a valuable resource to me as that couldn’t be further from the truth, however while utilizing this resource I still feel it necessary to maintain complete control (to the greatest possible extent) every aspect of my healthcare. So to respond to your statement directly, no my doctor is not aware of my regimen. That being said however, I certainly have no intent of diminishing anyone’s confidence in their own medical professional’s capacity to treat their given condition nor do I intend to advocate my personal approach as being universally optimal.
Posted by Phillipa on July 2, 2007, at 12:21:12
In reply to Re: EMSAM Insomnia No More, posted by d0pamine on July 2, 2007, at 12:00:21
I agree that it's rough these days as I've been blown off by multiple docs lately medical, ER, and Endos, and pdocs. I see you have managed care too. But now I'm also hearing that a lot of docs won't take Medicaire including disability so I guess in a way we have to be our own docs but still we can't write prescriptions. That for me is a problem. Best of luck to you. Phillipa
Posted by Viking on July 3, 2007, at 4:41:48
In reply to EMSAM Insomnia No More, posted by d0pamine on July 2, 2007, at 3:19:13
Very interesting.
How much did it change your blood pressure and how long did it take ?
Posted by d0pamine on July 3, 2007, at 5:13:33
In reply to Re: EMSAM Insomnia No More » d0pamine, posted by Viking on July 3, 2007, at 4:41:48
> Very interesting.
>
> How much did it change your blood pressure and how long did it take ?
>Well as I said, the bp change was much less significant than the sleep change, but to answer your question, it went from about 145/98 to 122/74 (give or take) and it took about a week. (just imagine how significant I’m trying to say the sleep change really is (I simply can’t overstate it)) I should further note that prior to starting EMSAM, my bp could easily be 180/105 or even 110 or 115 (yeah I know that's seriously bad). It always struck me as strange that it tended to run that high as I'm not at all over weight, fairly young, fairly active, and I am a vegetarian with an almost impeccable diet. Incidentally I should mention that I’ve tried samples from pretty much every class of hypertension medication and although my bp responded well to pretty much all of them, I found them all to be intolerable due to this or that side effect or long term prognosis.
This is the end of the thread.
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