I've been dieting for a couple of months, have lost about 10lb, am eating healthily, and am on a calorie deficit of 400. I have PMDD and have also gone through an incredibly stressful crisis recently, both of which I am prescribed occasional Valium for. I only take 2mg, rarely more than one dose in a day or a few doses in a month, though recently I've had to take it for more days than usual (with my doctor's blessing, don't worry). These days, it is completely knocking me out every time I take it. If it's first thing in the morning, I am likely to go back to sleep for hours. I'm wobbly, dizzy, eyes not focusing too well. I'm coping, and it's better than an anxiety attack, but obviously it's not ideal. Now I know that because I have ME/CFIDS my reactions to meds are a bit odd, but in the past, this reaction was very rare indeed.
Could the process of weight loss be altering my response to medication? I'm going to bring this up with my GP, especially since she's about to put me on anti-epileptics for pain and those have pretty strong side-effects in terms of zombification, but meanwhile I'm just curious to know what other people have experienced.
I don't have your medical problem, but I do have high blood pressure, a very mesurable condition.
Having recently lost 10lb, I noticed last week that I felt a bit dizzy so I took my blood pressure reading and it was really low (81/59). I am now closely monitoring my pressure and will have to see my doctor to have the medication adjusted to compensate for the weight loss and diet change (that being the reduced salt).
I would suggest that you discuss this with your doctor as soon as possible...even if it is just in anticipation of a presently nonexistant problem with your meds.
Interesting point. When I was slim, my blood pressure was low too, although once I put on weight it rose into the normal range. I've just taken it and it's 106 over 62, pulse 71, though I should take it again later when I haven't been running around fishing out the blood pressure monitor and faffing with batteries. I can't remember how low/normal that is. I know that it came out at 90/60 when I was at the doctor's once (so that's with physical and emotional stress in the mix), and that my aromatherapist took it once, frowned at it, said, "That can't possibly be right," and took it again a few minutes later. Anyway, if it's lower again, maybe that could be affecting my medication response?
I haven't reduced salt in my diet, I've always eaten a wholefoods diet. I'm eating miso soup more often than usual, so it's possible that my salt levels have even increased a bit.
I just checked, and apparently 90/60 or less is low, so this is still just about in the normal range.
My GP is meant to be ringing this week, don't worry. Unfortunately, I don't have any choice about not taking care of my weight when not feeling well, I haven't been well in fourteen years! I've been going through a relatively good patch since starting dieting, thankfully.
Dieting changing medication response?
