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Taking Amiodarone. Suffer Weakness, Fatigue And Difficulty In Breathing. Taking Medication For Blood Thinning. Stop Amiodarone And Finasteride?
Question: I have been taking 200mg of amiodarone for nearly 3 years as prescribed by my cardiologist. I have some problems including weakness, fatigue and more difficulty in breathing especially during physical activity. My familly doctor thinks I need a "holiday" from drugs. I also take several drugs including blood thinners, B/P meds and Finasteride for BPH. He thinks I should at least come off amiodarone and finasteride.
Brief Answer:
Talk to your cardiologist.
Detailed Answer:
Hi and thank you so much for this query.
I am so sorry to hear about your history of heart attack, enlarged prostate and the recent disturbing symptoms that you have.
From the information you have provided, you have risk factors for a possible heart failure(heart attack, hypertension), and your symptoms(especially feeling tired during physical activity) strongly suggest this. The best thing to do would be to investigate how well your heart is functioning.
I don't think a drug holiday is the immediate best thing to consider at this point when symptoms could represent another disease. Also, I always like to get the opinion of the various specialists before discontinuing any drug unless I have strong evidence to do so which I think it is lacking here.
My advice:
1. Talk with your cardiologist and have your heart investigated for proper functioning.
2. Let the cardiologists make this decision if no other problem is found to cause these symptoms but amiodarone. Amiodarone causes pulmonary, liver and thyroid dysfunctions which could explain these symptoms. You need regular appointments to follow this up while on amiodarone. Has this been the case with you?
So basically I want us to rule out possible causes of similar symptoms before attributing this to drugs.
Hope this addresses your query fully. Feel free to ask follow up questions for clarification if need be.
I wish you well.
Dr. Ditah, MD
Talk to your cardiologist.
Detailed Answer:
Hi and thank you so much for this query.
I am so sorry to hear about your history of heart attack, enlarged prostate and the recent disturbing symptoms that you have.
From the information you have provided, you have risk factors for a possible heart failure(heart attack, hypertension), and your symptoms(especially feeling tired during physical activity) strongly suggest this. The best thing to do would be to investigate how well your heart is functioning.
I don't think a drug holiday is the immediate best thing to consider at this point when symptoms could represent another disease. Also, I always like to get the opinion of the various specialists before discontinuing any drug unless I have strong evidence to do so which I think it is lacking here.
My advice:
1. Talk with your cardiologist and have your heart investigated for proper functioning.
2. Let the cardiologists make this decision if no other problem is found to cause these symptoms but amiodarone. Amiodarone causes pulmonary, liver and thyroid dysfunctions which could explain these symptoms. You need regular appointments to follow this up while on amiodarone. Has this been the case with you?
So basically I want us to rule out possible causes of similar symptoms before attributing this to drugs.
Hope this addresses your query fully. Feel free to ask follow up questions for clarification if need be.
I wish you well.
Dr. Ditah, MD
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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