Re: Dipyridamole
Posted: Fri May 04, 2018 7:31 am
Hi Yawny,
It would be great to welcome another member to the dipyridamole club - especially one so erudite as yourself.
I don't believe I had side effects from dipyridamole other than a headache (a tolerable one - not a migraine) which lasted maybe one or two days every time I increased the dose until I got to 350mg. I started getting the headache once I hit the 150mg mark. I haven't paid much attention to the when-to-take directions and I don't think the report of the study gave much direction about when the participants took their dose. Neither does it indicate what their starting dose was or by how much they increased each time they titrated up. I take my dose in the evening usually between 7.30 and 9.00pm.
Like Holland, I continue to feel more 'normal' than at any stage since I started my post-augmentation journey about two years ago. Also like Holland, I am using other drugs to manage my rls symptoms in addition to dipyridamole (see below). I am a restless experimenter so am always messing around with my system in an attempt to attain the optimal system with the minimum side effects. I have a slight anxiety about the tiny risk of the anti-coagulant properties of dipyridamole causing internal bleeding (my mother suffers from an auto-immune condition, the name of which escapes me, which causes her body to attack her own white blood cells so the risk of bleeding has been a live one in our family for many years). In consequence I have reduced my dose pf dipyridamole quite a lot.
My latest experiment is with ldn which I know doesn't work for everyone but I want to eliminate it from my enquiries. I am titrating up to 2.5/3.0mg daily (should be there by mid-May) and give that 3 months or so to see whether it has anything to offer me.
For now I am taking:
dipyridamole 100/125mg daily;
pramipexole (mirapexin) 0.044mg (the heady days when I was able to use a quarter tablet turned out to be attributable to a virus I was brewing - my rls is often less significant when I have a virus - I am determined not to increase my dose above half of a 0.088 tablet however);
pregabalin (lyrica) 75/85mg daily (I hate this drug and would love to eliminate it but I find that when I go below 75mg the legs start to act up so am sticking to this dose for now while I follow up other avenues);
ldn (currently 1.5mg daily).
In the last few days the legs have acted up at night. If that continues I may try increasing dipyridamole back to 150mg. While I am increasing ldn I am reluctant to take kratom so I am not taking breaks from pramipexole as previously because on the non-pramipexole days I was using kratom to cope with the symptoms.
I believe that the dipyridamole is contributing to my regime - as I say I feel better than I have ever done. I am convinced that dipyridamole completely eliminates the creepy crawley feeling although not so much the urge-to-move. However I do wonder if the bulk of my good coverage at present is attributable to the pramipexole and that those good days will come to an end as I become tolerant of that tiny dose - that may well already be happening. My plan is to struggle along until I have given the ldn a good chance (about end August) and then take a month or so off pramipexole using kratom in the hope that resets my receptors (unless ldn works).
I think you are right to start at about 50mg (I started at 100mg but am at the other end of the drug-sensitivity spectrum to you). I think I really started to feel the benefits at about 150mg and ultimately went as high (if memory serves) as 350mg. At that dose the headache did not go away so I started to reduce. I do think that it is still contributing even at the low dose I am currently on.
Good luck with this, Yawny. I hope it brings you great benefits. Apologies for the long rambling post.
It would be great to welcome another member to the dipyridamole club - especially one so erudite as yourself.
I don't believe I had side effects from dipyridamole other than a headache (a tolerable one - not a migraine) which lasted maybe one or two days every time I increased the dose until I got to 350mg. I started getting the headache once I hit the 150mg mark. I haven't paid much attention to the when-to-take directions and I don't think the report of the study gave much direction about when the participants took their dose. Neither does it indicate what their starting dose was or by how much they increased each time they titrated up. I take my dose in the evening usually between 7.30 and 9.00pm.
Like Holland, I continue to feel more 'normal' than at any stage since I started my post-augmentation journey about two years ago. Also like Holland, I am using other drugs to manage my rls symptoms in addition to dipyridamole (see below). I am a restless experimenter so am always messing around with my system in an attempt to attain the optimal system with the minimum side effects. I have a slight anxiety about the tiny risk of the anti-coagulant properties of dipyridamole causing internal bleeding (my mother suffers from an auto-immune condition, the name of which escapes me, which causes her body to attack her own white blood cells so the risk of bleeding has been a live one in our family for many years). In consequence I have reduced my dose pf dipyridamole quite a lot.
My latest experiment is with ldn which I know doesn't work for everyone but I want to eliminate it from my enquiries. I am titrating up to 2.5/3.0mg daily (should be there by mid-May) and give that 3 months or so to see whether it has anything to offer me.
For now I am taking:
dipyridamole 100/125mg daily;
pramipexole (mirapexin) 0.044mg (the heady days when I was able to use a quarter tablet turned out to be attributable to a virus I was brewing - my rls is often less significant when I have a virus - I am determined not to increase my dose above half of a 0.088 tablet however);
pregabalin (lyrica) 75/85mg daily (I hate this drug and would love to eliminate it but I find that when I go below 75mg the legs start to act up so am sticking to this dose for now while I follow up other avenues);
ldn (currently 1.5mg daily).
In the last few days the legs have acted up at night. If that continues I may try increasing dipyridamole back to 150mg. While I am increasing ldn I am reluctant to take kratom so I am not taking breaks from pramipexole as previously because on the non-pramipexole days I was using kratom to cope with the symptoms.
I believe that the dipyridamole is contributing to my regime - as I say I feel better than I have ever done. I am convinced that dipyridamole completely eliminates the creepy crawley feeling although not so much the urge-to-move. However I do wonder if the bulk of my good coverage at present is attributable to the pramipexole and that those good days will come to an end as I become tolerant of that tiny dose - that may well already be happening. My plan is to struggle along until I have given the ldn a good chance (about end August) and then take a month or so off pramipexole using kratom in the hope that resets my receptors (unless ldn works).
I think you are right to start at about 50mg (I started at 100mg but am at the other end of the drug-sensitivity spectrum to you). I think I really started to feel the benefits at about 150mg and ultimately went as high (if memory serves) as 350mg. At that dose the headache did not go away so I started to reduce. I do think that it is still contributing even at the low dose I am currently on.
Good luck with this, Yawny. I hope it brings you great benefits. Apologies for the long rambling post.