Posted by stargazer2 on January 21, 2008, at 15:46:27
In reply to Re: MAOIs and olives/conficting diet » stargazer2, posted by Bob on January 21, 2008, at 11:32:53
Bob, if you start to have a reaction to something you ate or to a contraindicated medication, it can be very serious since the reaction is an elevated BP, which comes on rather quickly, at least it did for me.
You may start to feel flushed or just have a funny vague feeling that something is wrong, or a clearer sign like a really bad headache.
Many people would just call 911 or get to an ER for treatment but I treated myself and was OK although I wouldn't recommend it unless you know what you are doing.
I have a BP cuff and I took my BP and it was 230/130. Next I got my meds given to me by my pdoc for this purpose. The med I was given is called Nifedipine and is used to reverse
hypertension only. Some people have said it is not a good medication for this since it can bottom out your BP quickly, but I found it to work, although it took awhile. During all this, I told my husband to call 911 if I couldn't reverse the hypertension or if I became unresponsive.After an hour or so my BP was within a normal range (150/88) and I felt safe that the worse had passed without any problem.
The one thing I can say for anyone on a MAO is you should get a BP cuff and make sure you know how to use it and know what your normal BP is. If you have a reaction to a food or med, you will know it if your BP elevates significantly above your normal range. My normal BP is around 100/60 so you can see how high it went when I had the reaction.
If you have no BP cuff or meds to reverse the hypertension you will have to go to the ER and hope they know how to deal with it. Oftentimes, even hospitals are not familiar with this reaction since MAO's are not used extensively anymore, except more recently by PsychoBabblers.
Hope that answers your questions.
Stargazer
poster:stargazer2
thread:807978
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080114/msgs/808183.html