• The General Mental Health Forum is now a Read Only Forum. As we had two large areas making it difficult for many to find, we decided to combine the Mental Health & the Recovery sections of the forum into Mental Health & Recovery as a whole. Physical Health still remains as it's own area within the entire Recovery area.

    If you are having struggles, need support in a particular area that you aren't finding a specific recovery area forum, you may find the General Struggles forum a great place to post. Any any that is related to emotions, self-esteem, insomnia, anger, relationship dynamics due to mental health and recovery and other issues that don't fit better in another forum would be examples of topics that might go there.

    If you have spiritual issues related to a mental health and recovery issue, please use the Recovery Related Spiritual Advice forum. This forum is designed to be like Christian Advice, only for recovery type of issues. Recovery being like a family in many ways, allows us to support one another together. May you be blessed today and each day.

    Kristen.NewCreation and FreeinChrist

How many of you take blood thinner?

cj.

Member
Jun 10, 2021
21
29
74
Yuba City, CA
✟9,488.00
Country
United States
Faith
Christian
Marital Status
Married
I began seeing a cardiologist a few years ago because I was experiencing AFib (paroxysmal atrial fibrillation) and the first thing he did was prescribe a blood thinner to minimize the risk of ischemic stroke that AFib can cause. In my case, the blood thinner was Eliquis -- reportedly a safer drug than warfarin but also expensive. I should have more thoroughly reviewed the literature on the prescribed medication. Had I done so, I would have realized that AFib and tachycardia are known side effects of Eliquis. Instead, I trusted my cardiologist who subsequently prescribed a second drug (metoprolol) to combat tachycardia caused by Eliquis. So I was now taking two drugs with serious potential side effects.

When I complained about other apparent side effects I was experiencing from Eliquis, my cardiologist suggested switching to another blood thinner -- Xarelto. This time I told him I wanted to first research the drug, and in the process of doing so I also read more about Eliquis, whereupon I realized Eliquis had made my AFib much worse and it had caused a new problem -- tachycardia. I was taking a drug I shouldn't take and I probably wouldn't need the second drug if I weren't taking the first.

So I read about how to safely stop taking both medications and prayerfully weaned myself off them over a period of seven weeks. That was about six months ago. The severity of my AFib began declining as soon as I began reducing the Eliquis dosage and it returned to the once-mild condition I had pre-Eliquis as soon as I stopped the drug altogether. Additionally, I've experienced no tachycardia at all since stopping the two drugs. I knew I should continue taking some kind of blood thinner so I tried cayenne pepper and I tried turmeric but intestinal sensitivity made it difficult for me to rely on them. After reading an article by Dr. Joseph Mercola indicating that low-dose aspirin was just as effective as Eliquis and Xarelto but had been unfairly sidelined because it wasn't nearly so profitable for the big pharmaceutical companies, I decided to take a single baby aspirin daily (which another cardiologist had at one point prescribed for me) and I've had no problems with it.

That's been my experience with blood thinners. Of course, everyone is different and I don't recommend experimenting without consulting your own doctor. I would note, however, that pharmacists tend to be more knowledgeable than physicians when it comes to drugs and they can be a valuable resource, perhaps alerting you to possible effects and/or drug interactions that your doctor might not mention.
 
Upvote 0