Low blood pressure
If you increase the dosage too quickly, you can just about guarantee a couple of bad falls. Seriously. Dont rush it. Let your body get used to the drug slowly. You have lived with this demon your whole live so you can live with it for another 2 months. Increase your dosage slowly. The pills come in orange 15 mgs. As a guideline, do 15 mg for two weeks. 30 mgs for 4 weeks and then settle on 60 mgs for at least 3 to 4 months. In most cases 60 mgs is all you need, but some people will need to go up to 75 or 90 mgs. That should only be done after 4 months of starting Nardil.
Carb Cravings
You will crave sugar and carbs about 2 months after starting nardil.Know it. It will happen. You HAVE TO manage your cravings and go run or jog or do some form of activity. Every day. Those feel good endorphins you feel after a good physical activity session are a rush of dopamine in your brain. Nardil acts on dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine (the most on the last whereas SSRI's target serotonin primarily and NDRI's target dopamine and norepinephrine). You will notice a multiplier effect of the feel good endorphins when you're on Nardil and the effects will last for hours (versus the maybe half hour to an hour). It feels great.
Food restrictions
I remember when I got my prescription, the pharmacist gave me this LONG list of foods that I could not consume. That turned out to be bullshit. Once I ate a packaged product and looked at the ingredients after and it had a lot of Soy. I started getting ready to die. What happened next? Nothing. I will admit I had splitting headaches twice and they were entirely due to bad TV programming. Not due to Nardil. That said, heres my take on the oft mentioned food types that they warn about:
Aged cheeses Smelly aged cheeses like blue cheese are a no-no. This has never been an issue for me because I never was a fan of those anyway. I eat my mozarella, cottage cheese, cream cheese, ricotta, processed cheeses, cheddar and have not had any issues. (and Kraft mac and cheese was fine as well!)
Alcohol Wines? no issues. Spirits? no issue. I don't drink beer so cant say anything about that. They do say you shouldn't have beer.
Bananas No issue. There are warnings about BANANA PEELS and OVERRIPE BANANAS where they've gone black-ish. Really? I cant eat banana PEELS any more? Really?
Raspberries I have them regularly
Prepared and sliced meat products I stay away from aged/prepared meats. This means I have to be careful when grabbing a pre-made sandwich.....who knows what sort of meats in it. I have had no issues with eating pizza - which normally has cheese and pepperoni. I stay away from consuming any quantity of pepperoni beyond the 3 thin cuts on a pizza slice. Aged meats have a high tyramine content. Just order a different topping and continue to enjoy your pizza. I keep my intake of sausages to a bare minimum (a bite here or there). No street meats either.
Soy sauce I have my sushi dipped in soy sauce and Wasabi and I've lived to tall the tale. Draw your own conclusions.
Drug Interactions
This is a big one and I have never taken a chance with this. Nardil (and all MAOIs) interact with a lot of other drugs - including a lot of over the counter drugs. I absolutely make it a point to tell any medical practitioner I see that I am on Nardil and because a lot of them don't know what it is I mention it is an MAOI and can they interact with other drugs - sometimes fatally. In cases where they're not familiar with the drug, the mention of fatal interaction makes them pay attention so either they'll refresh their memories or pull up their DTR references. Even some benign seeming cough syrups that you would normally not even think twice about CAN interact with Nardil, so please be careful. Some people wear med alert bracelets in case they are in a health emergency and are not able to tell the medical practitioners they are on an MAOI class drug. I think that's a prudent approach. I don't wear a med alert bracelet, but I taped a small neatly typed note on my drivers license which is on my person at all times: "Nardil (MAOI class drug) user - DRUG INTERACTIONS".
If you increase the dosage too quickly, you can just about guarantee a couple of bad falls. Seriously. Dont rush it. Let your body get used to the drug slowly. You have lived with this demon your whole live so you can live with it for another 2 months. Increase your dosage slowly. The pills come in orange 15 mgs. As a guideline, do 15 mg for two weeks. 30 mgs for 4 weeks and then settle on 60 mgs for at least 3 to 4 months. In most cases 60 mgs is all you need, but some people will need to go up to 75 or 90 mgs. That should only be done after 4 months of starting Nardil.
Carb Cravings
You will crave sugar and carbs about 2 months after starting nardil.Know it. It will happen. You HAVE TO manage your cravings and go run or jog or do some form of activity. Every day. Those feel good endorphins you feel after a good physical activity session are a rush of dopamine in your brain. Nardil acts on dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine (the most on the last whereas SSRI's target serotonin primarily and NDRI's target dopamine and norepinephrine). You will notice a multiplier effect of the feel good endorphins when you're on Nardil and the effects will last for hours (versus the maybe half hour to an hour). It feels great.
Food restrictions
I remember when I got my prescription, the pharmacist gave me this LONG list of foods that I could not consume. That turned out to be bullshit. Once I ate a packaged product and looked at the ingredients after and it had a lot of Soy. I started getting ready to die. What happened next? Nothing. I will admit I had splitting headaches twice and they were entirely due to bad TV programming. Not due to Nardil. That said, heres my take on the oft mentioned food types that they warn about:
Aged cheeses Smelly aged cheeses like blue cheese are a no-no. This has never been an issue for me because I never was a fan of those anyway. I eat my mozarella, cottage cheese, cream cheese, ricotta, processed cheeses, cheddar and have not had any issues. (and Kraft mac and cheese was fine as well!)
Alcohol Wines? no issues. Spirits? no issue. I don't drink beer so cant say anything about that. They do say you shouldn't have beer.
Bananas No issue. There are warnings about BANANA PEELS and OVERRIPE BANANAS where they've gone black-ish. Really? I cant eat banana PEELS any more? Really?
Raspberries I have them regularly
Prepared and sliced meat products I stay away from aged/prepared meats. This means I have to be careful when grabbing a pre-made sandwich.....who knows what sort of meats in it. I have had no issues with eating pizza - which normally has cheese and pepperoni. I stay away from consuming any quantity of pepperoni beyond the 3 thin cuts on a pizza slice. Aged meats have a high tyramine content. Just order a different topping and continue to enjoy your pizza. I keep my intake of sausages to a bare minimum (a bite here or there). No street meats either.
Soy sauce I have my sushi dipped in soy sauce and Wasabi and I've lived to tall the tale. Draw your own conclusions.
Drug Interactions
This is a big one and I have never taken a chance with this. Nardil (and all MAOIs) interact with a lot of other drugs - including a lot of over the counter drugs. I absolutely make it a point to tell any medical practitioner I see that I am on Nardil and because a lot of them don't know what it is I mention it is an MAOI and can they interact with other drugs - sometimes fatally. In cases where they're not familiar with the drug, the mention of fatal interaction makes them pay attention so either they'll refresh their memories or pull up their DTR references. Even some benign seeming cough syrups that you would normally not even think twice about CAN interact with Nardil, so please be careful. Some people wear med alert bracelets in case they are in a health emergency and are not able to tell the medical practitioners they are on an MAOI class drug. I think that's a prudent approach. I don't wear a med alert bracelet, but I taped a small neatly typed note on my drivers license which is on my person at all times: "Nardil (MAOI class drug) user - DRUG INTERACTIONS".