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    Heart Rate fast

    Its been a long time since I have posted and have been pretty darn good really. I try to cycle to work and back as often as I can and walk too. Over the last 12 months other health issues have reared up. I now have high blood pressure which was picked up incidentally at a routine heart health check we do each year at the hospital I work (I work in cardiology lol). So after some initial up and down and adjusting it is under control.

    I made the switch from Gillenya to Aubigero early this year and have noticed that my heart rate is significantly higher most of the time as appose to occasionally before. I actually took home a holter from work last saturday which I wore overnight (it is more noticeable to me at night), it showed my average heart rate over night was 92, but was between 77 and 121. I then wore one in the day and it gave me an average heart rate of 99 bpm and I made a conscious effort not to do anything to vigorous apart walking 50 meters every so often to take stuff to the labs, this was so I could get more of a resting heart rate average. Now whilst this is not considered to be very high I think that for someone who is reasonably fit and active its a little on the high side which my colleagues agree with. I am scheduled to see a cardiologist in a couple of weeks.

    My question is, does anyone else suffer with a rapid heart rate without obvious reason. Or has anyone come off of Gilenya and as this reduces your heart rate would be not unreasonable to think the opposite might happen on stopping. I have been off it for about 4 months.

    Thanks in advance for any comments.

    Jo
    Last edited by Seasha; 07-12-2015, 06:24 PM.

    #2
    Originally posted by Johooper View Post
    I now have high blood pressure <snip>

    I made the switch from Gillenya to Aubigero early this year and have noticed that my heart rate is significantly higher most of the time as appose to occasionally before. <snip>

    My question is, does anyone else suffer with a rapid heart rate without obvious reason. Or has anyone come off of Gilenya and as this reduces your heart rate would be not unreasonable to think the opposite might happen on stopping. I have been off it for about 4 months.
    Hi Johooper:

    The obvious question that comes up for me is, why do you think the increased heart rate would be from coming off of Gilenya, and not from starting Aubagio, which you're on now?

    If Gilenya had reduced your heart rate, it makes sense that your heart rate would have returned to its normal rate when you stopped, and that would have happened within the first couple of weeks of you stopping it. There's no information known about Gilenya that says it would actually raise your heart rate above its previously normal state and reset it there for months after it was long out of your system. It's important not to be distracted by Gilenya just because it has a known heart rate association, albeit in the opposite direction.

    You asked if anyone had a rapid heart rate for no reason. There's an obvious possibility/probability for yours.

    The prime culprit is Aubagio, which you're currently taking. Rapid heart rate doesn't have to be listed as a side effect for you to be experiencing it.

    You're associating the rapid heart beat with the cessation of Gilenya, but overlooking the starting of Aubagio, which occurred right afterward. The occurrence of a new symptom along with the starting of a new medication is classic for a side effect of the new medication.

    Hypertension is also associated with Aubagio. Hypertension is listed as an adverse effect seen in the clinical trial. I read in an article that at least one person dropped out of the clinical trial because of hypertension. In addition, teriflunomide (Aubagio) is the active metabolite of leflunomide (Arava, used to treat rheumatoid arthritis), and hypertension is a know side effect of leflunomide.

    Several years ago, I was put on methotrexate. Within a couple of days my heart rate went from its normal low 50s to over 100 beats per minute. Tachycardia doesn't even appear on the common lists of side effects, but it was definitely the methotrexate that caused it. There's no reason not to consider Aubagio as the cause of your rapid heart rate.

    Gilenya here is probably a red herring. It has been out of the picture for months. It makes more sense to be considering Aubagio as the cause of your increased heart rate and blood pressure. To verify it, you might even need to come off of it. It's a shame, but sometimes meds that are working well therapeutically have to be discontinued because of intolerable side effects. That's happened to me before.

    It's a little alarming to me that your doctors haven't already figured this out. I hope you can talk to them about this soon. And I hope they don't just blow it off because they've never heard of this before. For doctors who are knowledgable, it's kind of a no-brainer. I hope you get everythng straightened out soon.

    Comment


      #3
      Hi Jo,

      I have heart rate and bp issues that are directly linked to my MS.

      A few years ago my heart rate and BP started acting weird. Heart rate would speed up, sometimes I'd have SVT (supraventricular tachycardia). Went through the heart tests, saw an electro-cardiologist but he said they could not correct the SVT with ablation because it was MS induced.

      Same with my BP, that was and continues to be an even wilder ride. I would have spikes that would come out of nowhere. Sent to a nephrologist and BP specialist, they could find no reason (such as a pheochromocytoma) for the spikes. I wore a 24 hour BP machines where it takes your BP ever 15 minutes during the day, and longer intervals at night. My bp would often spike to 210/110, but I already knew that because I had had that reading many times in the doctors (at first I thought it was white coat syndrome...but then realized it would spike at other times.) Even in my sleep I was getting spikes that high.

      So experimentation with bp meds and arrythmia meds have helped me deal with the issue. Weird part is, especially with the bp...before I take my scheduled bp med I have to check my bp. Sometimes I don't take it because my blood pressure will have bottomed out and be really low,
      so I skip the bp med then. And my docs have given me a plan of action when I have the SVT and BP spikes at the same time. There's a combination of medication I take to try to keep myself out of the ER. All in all, I'm very pleased with the help and willingness of my GP to help me find the right meds and feel like I have a plan when things get "freaky."

      The culprit for these, and other autonomic issues I have, is a lesion in my medulla. I was also having cranial nerve issues so they did an MRI, specifically looking for something in the brainstem. They found a fairly large lesion in the medulla. When they went back and checked a previous MRI, it was on that scan too, the radiologist had missed it. The lesion has never resolved, but on a positive side, it has never gotten any larger.

      So all that to say, don't automatically blame a heart rate increase on a med (however, in your situation it seems like the problem started at the same time as the med)...it could be MS related. Autonomic dysfunction, and/or baroreceptor failure can be MS induced problems that
      affect your cardiovascular system, heart rate and BP.

      Hope you get some answers.

      Comment


        #4
        So ironic you ask this. I have been having some bouts of tachycardia during the middle of the night. Highest my pulse has been is 110bpm, which is not high, but high enough to make me not feel well. I never get this during the day, only in the middle of the night. I have had an echo and EKG and everything turned out normal. Cholesterol and bp is within normal range, so my MD def doesn't think it's heart related. I've done a lot of research online, seeing if there's a correlation between MS and tachycardia. You'd be surprised how many pages are filled with that topic. Look up POTS and MS. Also, many sites state that if you have lesions on the brain stem, you're more likely to experience heart rhythm and breathing problems, as this part of your brain controls each. My next MRI is next month and I'm curious to see what's going on in my brain, as I'm not on any treatment, being I'm PPMS and nothing was working. Interesting that I'm not the only one.

        Comment


          #5
          I have had an abnormally fast heart rate my entire life, averaging 100. Its just my rate.

          Comment


            #6
            Me too

            My heart rate is always high. I'm not supposed to have caffeine or at least not much.
            The rhythm is fine, so unless something changes I just see my cardiologist once a year for a EKG.

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