Acetazolamide & Palpitations

natedawggh

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I have been taking a very small amount of acetazolamide—1/4 a tablet. When I take it, though, it really works wonders until it starts to produce some very noticeable palpitations, specifically where my heart stops for a beat every 3-6 beats for about 30 seconds. It's very uncomfortable. I'm assuming this is from potassium wasting, but supplementing extra potassium does not relieve the effect at all.

I just read somewhere too that acetazolamide increases the level of aldosterone, but I couldn't confirm that anywhere. Does anyone have experience with this particular side effect and any insight into what could be going wrong? My last lab results showed a normal level of potassium.
 
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Try breathing faster for a bit when it happens.
 
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natedawggh

natedawggh

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I just started breathing from my diaphragm and it not only eliminated the palpitations, but started making all my fingers and toes tingle with oxygenation. I think I was just not really breathing at all, so the acetazolamide was doing its job but my lungs were not. I feel more relaxed and warm than I ever have on acetazolamide.
 

SQu

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Too much niacinamide did that to me too. Interesting and makes sense that it might be mineral related. Falls into the category of pushing one's metabolism up too fast and resources can't keep pace.
SS, why would breathing faster help? And is that just for acetazolamide or palpitations generally?
 

Blossom

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natedawggh said:
Just saw this study too. Baking Soda + Acetazolamide increased phosphate excretion. That's a good thing, right?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC297251/
I suppose it depends on the context but I would be careful with using added bicarbonate in combination with acetazolamide. Some phosphate is necessary and although it is good to keep it in balance one could possibly push phosphorus too low using baking soda and acetazolamide together. I noticed when I drank high bicarbonate mineral water while taking diamox I would have kidney pain. I concluded that my kidneys were being taxed to try to excrete the bicarbonate that my body couldn't breakdown because acetazolamide is a carbonic anhydrase inhibitor. Please do your own research of course as I'm just relaying my personal experience!
 
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Too much Buteyko gives me that and angina so I just balance it, I don't know. But hyperventilating in normal conditions will create the problem instead of solving it. Never breathe from the chest as you will not be able to judge your ventilation.
 
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natedawggh

natedawggh

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@Such_Saturation: Yeah, I've just been diaphragm deep breathing and it helps immediately. I don't even necessarily have to hyperventilate, just full breaths.

@Blossom: Thanks, I haven't been doing bicarbonate every day, just once a weekish. It feels good when I do it... btw, I read somewhere that the increased bicarbonate excretion can cause kidney stones... so I'm taking 500 mg a day of magnesium, which is supposed to counteract that.
 

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