Posted by tennisplayer on October 13, 2007, at 11:09:02
In reply to Re: Cymbalta withdrawal - Publicity, posted by moesje on October 12, 2007, at 22:10:32
Moesje, thank you. I am about 40 days out now off of Cymbalta. Still plagued with high blood pressure and high cholesterol (never had high blood pressure before in my life), but the other withdrawal symptoms are going away pretty fast now. One thing that helps me calm down some and sleep better is Atenolol (a blood pressure medicine) at a low dose (10 mg). My internal medicine doctor said I only need take it for a week or so. I take it on days when I don't have to be extremely active, but it does help lower my blood pressure and produce a pleasant calm without turning me into a zombie. However, I do not intend to take it any longer than the next week or two, and then only occasionally, as I don't want to get into another mind-numbing drug situation. I am also doing a modified version of the Atkins diet, which allows about 60 grams of carbohydrate a day with more to be added in in later phases of the diet, and have lost 8 pounds in 12 days and feeling much more energetic, since I got away from that carbohydrate binging I was on for 5 weeks after quitting Cymbalta. This diet also helps bring your cholesterol down, as it is now known that overeating of carbohydrates triggers your own body to make cholesterol, and that own-body made cholesterol is where 80% of the cholesterol circulating in your blood comes from, not from dietary intake of fat and protein (as the AMA and AHA thought for so long and told all of us.) It became more and more apparent that the high carbohydrate/low fat diet did not work for either weight loss or cholesterol lowering,which circumstance is now proven by scientific studies and by my personal experience in my case. I was one of those people who lost weight on Cymbalta, but when I quit it I gained weight and ravenously craved and stuffed carbohydrates (protein seemed a nauseous prospect). That is probably one reason my cholesterol was 398, and my blood pressure was 168/90 when all my life it has run 120/70. In addition they now know that Cymbalta and other norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors often cause pathologic blood pressure rise on a chemical reaction basis, not just from weight gain. Sorry to go on and on, but if anyone else found themselves in that carbohydrate ravenous craving cycle either while tapering or off of Cymbalta, I thought it might help them get out of it to know that the Atkins diet is one option for doing so. I am now free from that extreme carbohydrate craving. It is tough the first 3 or 4 days though and you need to be able to lie down or handle the headache and fatigue that comes those first few days. After that you have tons more energy each day. thanks
poster:tennisplayer
thread:466069
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/wdrawl/20070929/msgs/788936.html