Is anyone with coronary spasms taking Ranexa (ranolozine) and what side effects have you experienced
I have not heard of that drug. Are you having adverse side effects?
I have that complaint and take nicorandil, it's amazing and no side effects that I can think of, it has made a huge difference to me, I also take clopidal as it's for similar and coversyl and monodure, I have prinz Metals angina coronary artery spasm, terrible thing, I can't be mire pleased with nicorandil,
Bettebet I think it is a relatively new one used when the usual are not working well enough to control the spasm/angina taken with the usual ones. lynette I take nicorandil unfortunately I can only take half 10mg twice daily as any higher dose gives me permanent severe headaches. Side effects of ranolazine are varied in severity and range I seem to be getting the rare ones, I was hoping someone else was taking it and had experienced side effects and wondered if they eventually stopped with time, it has had some really good results apparently
I have microvascular angina and am taking Ranexa, L-Arginine, Lisinopril (ace inhibitor) and Carvedilol (beta blocker). With that "cocktail" all chest pains are gone. The last med added was Carvedilol and with that came a dry cough along with general fatigue and tiredness which seemed like a setback. Up until the beta blocker, I didn't experience any noticeable side effects. What type/which side effects are you experiencing ?
Hi Linda, how much L Argenine do you take a day I found them in capsule form and take one every morning, it's about one teaspoon full I guess, my cardiologist put me onto it
I take 3,000 MG L-Arginine a day. They come in 500 MG tablets. I take 2 tablets 3 times a day
Hi Linda,nthanks for that I have only been taking one tablet a day of 500 mg so I may increase that do you feel they are a big help, regards Lynette
Hi Lynette, I don't take L Argenine my meds are Digoxin, Isosorbide (2 daily slow release GTN) Aspirin, Fruosomine, atorvastatin, Omeprazole,Ranexa (was 500mg twice daily now 375mg Twice daily) the side effect I am getting are imbalance, blurred vision, tight pressure in head, numbness in tongue and lips and a general feeling of unwell, this isn't all day I get a period in the morning which I assume is from the evening dose then again in the afternoon about three which is from the morning dose. I am at present experimenting with not taking the morning dose just to get me through the day.
To be fair the increase in Isoosorbide to two daily is the one that finally stopped the spasms, I had some side effects from the Ranexa when I first started on them which stopped after a couple of weeks but then I had Floroscopic steroid injections in my back for a disc problem that gives me a lot of pain and then I sterted to get these more severe side effects so not sure if they are fighting each other as Ranexa is a bit sensitive to medications and have to be careful what is prescribed
Hi Sue please see the reply to Lynette I think this will answer your question too
I am a newbie to the spasm/angina health problem. Before I had my heart and after I had very few and only 1 painful spasm episode.
Would any one ne willing to describe their symptoms?
Any medication used to treat any type on angina has the potential to cause varying degrees of headaches, sometimes quite painful ones. Here's why:
Nitrates and all calcium channel blockers dilate our coronary arteries, as everyone here knows. They also do this to all the other arteries in the body. What a blood pressure reading is, is the amount of pressure (measured in mm of mercury) exerted on the inside of the artery walls by the blood inside them. Ever hear the docs, nurses and medics comment that your blood pressure is lower after you take a spray of nitro? The arteries suddenly become much larger in diameter, while there is little change in the amount of blood (this gets into how the body shunts blood and I'm getting to it), leading to a decrease how tightly packed the blood is. This registers as a low pressure.
Thousands of years ago, when man had low blood pressure, it wasn't due to the nitro, but to losing blood. Saber tooth tiger bites your arm off. Your blood vessels remain the same size, but you are losing blood. This means there is very little blood pushing up against the artery walls. Your body says, "Wait! I can live a few hours without most of my organs getting enough blood, but if my heart, lungs and brain go without blood for a couple minutes, I'm dead". Your body opens up the arteries to those organs to keep them alive. This is now an automatic response the body does anytime the blood pressure drops (such as after our angina meds kick in).
We are at my meds are working and dilating all the arteries in my body. The protective mechanism of shunting blood to the already dilated arteries in the brain. What makes the difference is the skull is a closed environment. Your body is trying to cram a bunch of blood into your brain, which acts like the walls of a box. You know how when us ladies pack a suitcase and we are cramming everything we can in there? That's what's going on in your head. The skull won't let the brain expand out (like when you get swelling from a large bruise). The pressure is now directed back on the brain tissue, where the pressure sensing nerves say, "This hurts!".
Over time, we become tolerant to those medications. The body realized it isn't really going to die, so it doesn't react as strongly to that stimulus because it recognizes it. This will lead to a reduction in the typical headaches we first experience. The time table is very individualized, sometimes days, sometimes months, but it will happen.
So in the end, the headaches we get are all due to hungry predators in our ancestos' pasts. This has been (a hopefully interesting) episode of medications and physiology with Cathy.
Hi Linda
Ranexa is patassium channel activator drug. This is a one of the newer in this class and also a very expensive one.
I did no experience any side effects with this in last 6 months or so that I have been on it, but are you really worried about the side effects? Even if you get odd hot flushes or other irritation, if the drug is going to do the trick, you are going to put up with the side effect, right?
But, here's the proplem that I had: Just recently, the doctor put me on another drug that has a major interaction with Ranexa. You can read all the side effects and drug interaction on google. so, sadly I had to come off Ranexa.
I hope that does not happen to you.
I have a question for you: what led your doctor to say that you are suffering from the coronary spasms? Did they do any tests? I presume you have got a stent or two?
I have had the rare side effects which I have listed in this thread if they were just mild I would put up with them, my initioal question was - is anyone else getting these and did they go after a while. As to your other question no I have not had any stents my main arteries only slight plaque but my symptoms are exactly the same as angina and the pain I get is angina pain, reflux has been ruled out from a barium swallow and meal. I have had all the usual tests angiogram, ecg, echocardiogram, twice my troponin levels were raised and ecg shows some damage luckily for me my Cardiologist recongnises microvascular/coronary spasms some won't even consider it.
Sounds like you got a good cardiologist. Ranexa isn't used in Canada, it isn't an option for me. That is great that your cardiologist knows not to stent for vasospasm. Some don't. In some people it irritates the inner lining of the coronary arteries and causes more spaming distal to the stent. There is no way of removing a stent, so the person ththas this happen is now most likely screwed for life. Occasionally, as we age and our coronary arteries start to stiffen (usually around our 60's) like anyone else's. For some, this is good news, because it means that the arteries now have less ability to spasm. If you get admitted to another cardiologist and they try to put a stent in you, unless you are having a STEMI (both ecg changes from your most recent one, not a normal person's AND elevated enzymes) ask them to discuss that decision with your cardiologist before going to the cath lab. They'll probably give you a hard time, but if they make the wrong call, it's the patient that now has to deal with the pain and all that goes along with it, for the rest of their lives. Stick with your guy though, sounds like he is a rare gem.
I tried posting appropriate dosing for L-Arginine here for you. They took it down, even though I didn't include the specifics of where to get it from, the wedsite address or the name of the manufacturer that is recommended by a cardiologist who has done more research on the amino acid than anyone in the world (not my cardiologist or my personal opinion of what you should takr). You are not taking the most effective dose for Prinzmetal, and neither is the other person that mentioned it. The directions on the bottle is for other uses, not specifically what we use it for. I was an ICU nurse and also worked in a cardiac cath lab for 15 years, so I worked with people that had it professionally, and have been involved in two research groups about it, but that is irrelevant to the moderators of the site. I have had four MIs, two cardiac arrests, two surgeries, spend 25 percent of my life in the hospital, have been evaluated for a transplant (incredibly rarely considered for Prinzmetal), and the plan is to go through with that down the road (I currently meet some of the criteria for a new heart, but not all yet), all in the last four years. One would think that given my professional knowledge about the subject, and everything I have experienced personally, driving me to do even more study on the topic, that this would be an asset to the group, but on more than one occasion, the evidence based info (not my personal opinion) I have posted has been removed by the moderators. I have no issue with them removing personal opinions, as they can be danderous, but if we are to become educated on our condition, it won't happen here. That's why I'm rarely on the site anymore.
See my post above to Sue.
Hi Cathy,
The only post you have ever had removed was the one above. There is no problem mentioning Amazon in your posts. It was removed as it was all very vague and sounded like a "promotional" post. The dosage you quoted was "For best results, the usual dose of L- Arginine is 9 grams per day."
If you want to post links to evidence based articles they will get approved as long as they are to non-commercial reputable sites. If there is information that may not pass moderation, ie brand names or commercial links etc you can use the private message service to exchange these details.
http://patient.uservoice.com/knowledgebase/articles/398331-private-messages
Regards,
Alan
Hi Linda
I was started on Ranexa about 10 days ago and apart from a welcome decrease in chest pain the only thing I have noticed so far is mild discomfort in my digestive tract. I don't normally experience digestive troubles and gastric problems were ruled out during investigations into the chest pain 3 years ago. Although Ranexa is the latest addition to my list of meds, the dosages of some of the others have also been increased recently so I am not sure if the discomfort is Ranexa related or not. I've modified the times of day I take the Ranexa and am looking at my diet to make sure I knock out other things (such as tea and coffee) that might not be helping.
I hope you find the side effects you experience subside over time Linda and that the benefits of Ranexa outweigh the problems.