Epilepsy Pills
For the past 24 hours I’ve experienced erratic heart beat: nothing painful, just episodes of slightly faster beat and not feeling ‘right’. My initial thought was "oh no – this is all the fat I’ve eaten over the past 8 months on the ketogenic diet: this is heart disease catching up with me". But then the scientist in me came out - along with the heart rate monitor and running shoes… So I went for a short run and recorded my heart rate, which reacted to the exercise’s demand for oxygen as predicted. I only got palpatations while I was ‘resting’. To me, palpitations that can be over-ridden by oxygen demand suggest an endocrine trigger. Exactly what, I can’t say.. It could be thyroxine or adrenaline. I am aware that over-exertion is linked to palpitations. However, I can’t help but question whether this is linked to Anti Epilepsy Drugs that I took in the past…
An epilepsy medication called carbamazepine was prescribed to me for 6 years. Whenever I had a seizure, the prescribed dose was increased. At the end of 6 years, I was taking very high doses of this drug. In scientific literature, this medication is associated with changes in serum sex hormone concentrations as well as in levels of the sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG).
Carbamazepine (a.k.a. Tegretol) is known to ‘accelerate’ the P450 enzyme system in the liver (Perucca et al. 1984). So hormones that get metabolised via this enzyme system -including T4, free T4, TSH, DHEA-S and SHBG will get ‘taken out’ of the body at a faster rate. The research on all this dates back to the 1980s. It seems pretty obvious to me that that endocrinological expertise is a necessity whenever this medication is prescribed. Serum lipid levels (i.e. fat) are known to change when people take this medication - total cholesterol, HDL, LDL and TG increase.
I noticed many things going wrong with my hormone (endocrine) system - as well as my digestive system and immune system - when I was taking carbamazepine. These illnesses seem to be gradually wearing off, since I stopped taking the drug.
I was never given any routine blood tests while I was prescribed anti-epilepsy drugs. I could have avoided a lot of hardship if blood tests had been taken regularly.
March 27, 2009 at 6:19 pm
My mom has been on Tegretol for years (as long as i can remember) and her doctor always had her blood work checked. I hope you check with your doctor and things are well with you now! GOOD LUCK