I started taking glucosamine
to relieve joint pains. I'm on my feet 9 hours a day and my knees
would really start to hurt. After about a year of using it I started
developing strange problems. I didn't know it at the time but
I was having difficulty doing my work and concentrating properly.
Problems with my work gradually got worse and worse and mental
problems started occurring from it. I woke up one morning with
very rapid heart rate that would start quickly when I moved and
then would diminish slowly over and hour or so. I got out of bed
like any other day and on my way to the shower I noticed my heart
rate continuing to climb until I had to sit down and almost passed
out. Also to note that I had a strange diarrhea, it seemed like
pure yellow liquid.
I went to an emergency care facility and they didn't
find anything wrong, but had a short episode while waiting to
see the doctor.
A few hours later it started up again but this time
it was worse so I went to the hospital.
The EKG recorded 156 bpm heart rate at rest with
a slightly elevated blood pressure. But it slowly went to normal
over the period of an hour. They did blood test, many heart related
test, but found nothing wrong. Thought it was just stress related
and sent me home with some pills.
After the first episode I noticed I hadn’t
had a bowel movement for about 4-5 days. When I tried to force
something out I noticed it looked like improperly digested food.
So I was forced to use an enema which seemed to clear things up
well.
The next day started having the same problems but
this time they were more frequent and would last longer. I was
able to see a heart specialist and he decided to put me on a heart
monitoring device. I wore this for a month and when ever I felt
odd I was to record the incident and send the results to a facility.
At one point the device recorded a heart rate of 158 bpm this
lasted for about 10 – 15 but slowed to 120 then took about
3 hours to go back to normal.
I wasn’t able to sleep for the first week
without my heart waking me up. Every time I ate something it seemed
to trigger another rapid heart rate attack.
All the doctors I went to were baffled and could
not explain it. One suggested that that I have a procedure done
to check for misfiring electrodes on the heart, but it was an
invasive procedure. I was totally against doing this.
I never feel normal anymore, but I haven’t
had a bad attack for over a month now. My stomach always feels
upset and now my joints hurt more than ever. I no longer take
the glucosamine and I’ve noticed and so has my employer
that I’m back to my sharper-calm-happy self. Although I
do feel like I can’t think as well as I used to and seem
to make many stupid simple mistakes.
I don’t know for sure if this was all caused
by glucosamine, but it seems peculiar that it was the only supplement
I was taking and now I’m doing much better now that I’m
off it.
I just wish I could feel normal again.
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