Heart Failure / Dapagliflozine

[Summerlily]

About 3 weeks ago I was diagnosed with heart failureInitially I was put on Furosemide 40 , with potassium tablets .This seemed to help

Now I have been on Forxiga ( dapagliflozine) for 2 weeks and don't feel so good

Has anyone had experience of this medication

What are you views ?

Be very interested in any comments

Thank you

[BigBen_ten]

Hi,

I was diagnosed with heart failure in July 2023 and after discharge from hospital was prescribed both furosemide and dapagliflozin as well as other heart related meds.Can I ask has the furosemide prescription stopped?Are you taking any other medications?.I assume you had fluid retention as that is normally why furosemide is prescribed? Furosemide is a very aggressive drug ( I found) and during the time i was prescribed i had issues and side effects,Was very happy when the furosemide was eventually replace with bumetanide...same purpose but more agreeable with my system.Can you say in more detail why you" don't feel so good?It can sometimes take time for your GP/Consultant to find the right balance of medications to suit your system.

[Drawforaliving]

Summerlily, my experience of dapagilflozin is (I'm not sure you are aware that first and foremost this medicine was designed for diabetes.) It steals sugar and salt from your system. If you are not particularly overweight (my bmi is 23) you may find you need to ensure you eat regularly, you need to eat more and you need to over hydrate to what you are used to. I don't eat much sugar generally so needed to put more into my diet to offset what was being stolen. I found I needed to drink about 4 litres of water a day and had to make sure I ate 3 regular spaced out meals and I found the medication side effects levelled out considerably. Missing meals on this drug made me feel awful.

[TheBesty]

Hi Summerlily,

I am on both of these medications and they both can drain your potassium levels and leave you feeling light headed and a bit dizzy.

I'm at a stage now where I can wake up each morning and choose my own dose of furosemide depending on how my water retention is each day, some days I can skip it if i have no build up around my ankles, Some days I need 40-80mg.

How do they make you feel?

I've been on both for over a year now and the dizziness got a bit better after a few weeks for me after my body got used to them. I still get dizzy if i get up too fast or bend down.

Might be worth giving them a try for another couple of weeks for your body to adjust, then if they are still giving you issues that outweigh the benefits, speak to your GP about what alternatives there are or getting a dose adjustment (if there is one)

[cavalover]

I’ve been taking Dapa for nearly 3 years and had no problems. I did have a severe reaction to Furosemide so was changed to Bumetinide with no problems. You need to tell your heart team about any problems.

[Deejay62]

Like others have said if you’re having problems with a medication you should speak to your prescriber because what might work for some might not work for others. I’ve been on dapa for heart failure for a while and all it does is make me pee a lot which is a good thing for me.

[Class52]

I’ve been on this medication for some years 3 maybe 4. Its aim is to reduce blood sugar levels as I’m type 2 diabetic I also have angina and 49% clogged artery. As far as I can tell there are no side effects. Urine tests show high blood sugar which they should. Possibly you may get sugar burn on your penis so keep it regularly clean or thrush which I assume can affect men and women alike. You don’t say what not feeling so good is??

[Hannah-Hay]

the only side effect I noticed was thrush which happened very quickly so I cane off it. Wasn’t in long enough to notice any other side effects but thrush was horrible.

[Visigoth]

I’ve had no side effects from dapagloflozin but I refused to take furosemide since it seemed incredibly aggressive (and the cardiologist later confirmed that I shouldn’t be on it). I would hazard a guess that it is the combination of the two that is causing you problems since they both drain stuff out of you! I think it’s important to make sure you drink loads of water every day but I would discuss it with your doctor anyway. It could be, for example, that you could try a lower dose of one of them but obviously I have no idea what is appropriate for you.

[Summerlily]

Thank you all for your helpful commentsNeither of the drugs caused me to have side effects

I just felt that Furosemide helped better with breathing problems but in view of comments here I will persevere with dapagliflozine

Thank you all