Please note I am not a Dr. This is NOT medical advice. I just want to share this cautionary tale with these Solgar Choline/Inositol 500 mg/500 mg capsules, in case it helps someone else avoid what happened to me.
I have always had low blood pressure naturally. It runs in the family. If this is you, please know I am writing this review for you.
I started taking this for liver support in December 2017 to May 2020. I did my own research and was kinda proud of my research skills in all honesty.
I took the recommended dose of 2 capsules per day. When I divide the amount of capsules I purchased in that time by the amount of days I took it for - it worked out to be 1.5 capsules a day - so I obviously skipped a lot of days because I just plain forgot.
In 2019 I started having cardiac "events"
I would start to feel myself blacking out but the only thing that would stop me from fainting was to hyperventilate. So I would have to hyperventilate until I came right. It was terrifying. I have fainted in my life more than once due to low blood pressure but this felt different. It felt like when you are going under a general anesthetic. Kinda like I was zooming into blackness, not like a dizzy faint at all.
It generally happened when I was relaxing. Either while I was driving, or on the computer or watching TV.
I took myself off to a cardiologist (I provided a list of the vitamins I was taking) who gave me a halter monitor which didn't capture an event, but he did say that my blood pressure was MUCH lower than usual. He didn't know why but prescribed beta blockers.
He warned me to call 911 if it happened again, saying that the symptoms I described could lead to SCD (sudden cardiac death) I was closely monitored during this time by my cardiologist. He explained that the urge to hyperventilate was because I wasn't getting enough oxygen to my brain and if I passed out during the event despite hyperventilating, I would then be breathing shallowly and could die while I was unconscious as my heart was not pumping enough blood to my brain during these events.
Well after experiencing this for a year, with the episodes becoming more frequent, and not knowing when an event would come on I became too fearful to drive. More than once I ended up on the side of the road hyperventilating to stay conscious - once it happened on a freeway and I only just managed to pull over into the emergency lane. The cardiologist decided to implant a device in my chest that would record my heart rate for 12 months. We were in the process of scheduling that when I was online purchasing another bottle of Solgar Choline/Inositol 500 mg/500 mg and I googled it and saw for the first time that BOTH Choline and Inositol lower blood pressure! (a quick google search will provide that info on reputable sites) MIND BLOWN.
I had been taking it a long time before the events started. Neither my cardiologist or myself had considered it could be the supplements.
I immediately discontinued taking it. I felt better within days and only had 3 mild events in the next month and then never had another event!!!!!!
It is now exactly two years later and I am now 23 months event free!!! No meds required, and no monitor surgically implanted in my chest! My blood pressure it back to what it normally is. Healthily low but not low enough to die from!
If you have high blood pressure maybe these would work well for you but talk to your Dr! And when you ask your Dr about it, tell them that Choline and Inositol lower blood pressure because many Drs are not well versed on supplements. My cardiologist didn't know!!!!!!
If you have low blood pressure talk to your Dr before using, and proceed with this cautionary tale in mind.
If this review helps one person avoid what I went through, it was well worth my time to write it.
Take care, be well, and keep in mind that supplements are not always benign, just because they are natural. Stay safe out there folks
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