Posted by paulk on April 17, 2002, at 1:50:04
In reply to Re: Nardil foods » Rick, posted by Elizabeth on February 10, 2002, at 12:23:46
I think there is more than what we know going on with MAOIs and the banned food list. Before I start here – please don’t take this as a suggestion to eat food on the list – my hunch is that the blood pressure crisis problem is very dependent to the individual.I was having a lot of problems with low blood pressure (BTW Viagra used with Nardil caused me to have fainting spells for 3 days! – Something that is not in the PDR) so I decided to try to raise my blood pressure with sharp cheddar cheese. (Again don’t try this yourself). (I have never been able to find tyramine in health food stores or on line anywhere so I resorted to the cheese. If anyone knows of a source of tyramine supplements please let me know.)
My diastolic pressure would get so low when I stood that my doc could not measure it. I started out by taking my blood pressure 4 times a day while lying down. My diastolic ranged 60 to 80. I started out with a very small slice of cheese three times a day and worked it up to 8 slices three times a day – with out getting any blood pressure help. I then tried Ramona cheese with the same result.
Seeing that I don’t know what the tyramine content was- this really doesn’t prove anything, but only suggests testing with purified tyramine.
Anyone who is thinking of cheating on their MAOI diet should consider the following:
Tyramine content could vary drastically from one block of cheese to the next. Don’t assume that if you got away with a restricted food one time, that you can completely ignore the guidelines.
If you are destined to cheat always start off with very, very small amounts of the food followed with a blood pressure check. An automatic blood pressure cuff used 1, 2 and 3 hours after eating restricted foods that shows a rise of the diastolic pressure above 90 is a big hint that you better stick with the program.
What really has my interest is that I have always craved sharp cheddar cheese and wonder if it is because it is a monoamine precursor. Perhaps tyramine could be used as a depression treatment?
poster:paulk
thread:92572
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020416/msgs/103315.html