Managing Edema from aldactone help please.

[big_byrd52]

Hey guys, just had my show last weekend. ran aldactone at 25mg starting tues night, 25 am/pm weds, 50mg thurs am then back down to 25mg thurs pm, and 25mg am/pm thru sat night.

i didnt go crazy after the show with food intake. i was sick all day sat so just had a salad with grilled chicken after the show. sun just ate 2 meals of pot roast and sweet potatoes, and one up your mass shake by MHP. monday morning was back on my diet and drinking fluids. i was holding some water, weight jumped from 217 up to 226 and was back down to 218 by the end of the week. however, i went out of town and ate out for all my meals, had some pancakes and the like, nothing real crazy tho, just alot of carbs, but nothing any different than i had done every weekend leading up to the show.

i got so bloated and swollen i could hardly open my eyes. i still cant make a fist, and my ankles are extremely swollen. i gained 9 pounds from sat am to pm, but have not been able to weigh since then. the edema is much much worse than before the show and i just dont understand why? even when my weight got back down, i still looked NOTHING like i did before starting the aldactone the week of the show? what gives?

has the aldactone thrown my body that much out of wack? i dont experience this when i use lasix and cut 25 pounds for a power meet and put it back on in under 24 hours, so i am wondering if its the aldactone that has thrown me off. is this common?


thanks for the insight... oh, i also started taking an herbal water pill today to help flush some out and am back on my diet again.

 

[gravityfighter]

Palumbo wrote an article on this exact thing in the latest MD.Something to do with sodium.
Peace,GF

 

[Magnum]

Welcome to the world of diuretic abuse. Get your ass to the ER and get some blood work done instead of guessing what is wrong!!!

 

[Dusty Hanshaw]

Easy to fix, happens to people all the time. Get off any diuretics and drink two gallons of water a day for three days. Water in=water out.

 

[Magnum]

Easy to fix, happens to people all the time. Get off any diuretics and drink two gallons of water a day for three days. Water in=water out.

Not true! After abusing diuretics his body his obviously out of wack since he is retaining water and I would guess that he is drinking water.

I guy that I know went thru the same thing and for roughly a week after he drank about 2 gallons a day and hardly pissed. I say again, why not go down to the ER and get some blood work done? At least have peace of mind.

 

[Dusty Hanshaw]

Not true! After abusing diuretics his body his obviously out of wack since he is retaining water and I would guess that he is drinking water.

I guy that I know went thru the same thing and for roughly a week after he drank about 2 gallons a day and hardly pissed. I say again, why not go down to the ER and get some blood work done? At least have peace of mind.

I'm sorry, I read that he used diuretics. He never mentioned to me that he abused them. Out of curiosity though, what would getting his bloodwork do?
I have had three clients complain of this EXACT same thing following a show and it is amazing how few keep up with drinking water once they start retaining it. Have you never seen a body start to hold water because you aren't giving it enough fluid? I think he would have went to the ER already had he felt it was an emergency rather than asking for our advice on a message board.

 

[gravityfighter]

There is an article by Future on Aldactone in the Female forum answering a ? by Scorpio Girl.And I normally don't get involved in arguments as you can see from the years I've been on this board but I've got to go with Dusty on this one it did'nt look like abuse to me from BB52'S post.
Peace,GF

 

[sabbaman]

I have to agree, after reading his post, his dosage of Aldactone is far, far from abusing! He took a very moderate dose to say the least. I would get that you had also sodium depleted yourself while you were dropping your water and taking aldactone. Sodium depleting before a show will screw up your system royaly, especially in combo with carb deplete and then reloading. My wife had the same issue and she could barely walk up the stairs as her ankles and toes were so swollen it hurt and she looked about 7 months preggo. She just continued to drink alot of water and took some natural diretics, like dandelion root and after a week or so everything went back to normal. She has not had any other issues with her last few shows now that she switched trainers and no longer sodium depletes.

 

[Magnum]

I'm sorry, I read that he used diuretics. He never mentioned to me that he abused them. Out of curiosity though, what would getting his bloodwork do?
I have had three clients complain of this EXACT same thing following a show and it is amazing how few keep up with drinking water once they start retaining it. Have you never seen a body start to hold water because you aren't giving it enough fluid? I think he would have went to the ER already had he felt it was an emergency rather than asking for our advice on a message board.

I could name sooo many different situations that I have seen occur from diuretic use and abuse. Generally when someone uses diuretics when not needed you can call it abuse. I do not take diuretic use lightly. For example, I was at a show and I happen to know the guy this happened to. He took aldactone in a VERY similar way that Big B took it. This guy started having an irregular heart beat and started to get nausous right after the finals. Ended up in the ER later that night with an out of balance potassium sodium balance. He DID NOT eat ot drink excessivly after the show. Just ate some chicken and a yam at a restaurant.

Most people will not go to the ER even when they are having symptoms. Obviously so since Big B came here first. You DO NOT always have symptoms when you have a low pottasium levels. For example. I was watching one of those plastic surgery shows about this girl wanting to get implants. They ran blood work on her and her pottassium levels came back dangerously low. Even the DR was suprised at how low and he asked her how she felt and she said fine. Some of you guys may remember seeing this. Prime example of NOT know you are maybe about to die or come close to it. I can't remember what her potassium levels were, I just remember saying WTF when he told her the number!

It suprises me how some of you taking diuretics so lightly. Guys come one here and start giving symptoms of what could be congestive heart failure and everyone starts playing Dr and give their sure fire remedy on how to correct a potentially life threatening situation. On the other hand someone will come here and mention they take 2 grams of test a week and will be told he is nuts and to go to the DR and get blood work. Personally I do not want to play DR when it comes to someone using diuretics.

There is a VERY fine line when it comes to balancing your potassium and sodium levels. The immediate threat to ones life is much great when using things such as diuretics and insulin then it will ever be from using steroids. So, many of you may disagree with me and that's fine, but no one on here can tell me what this guys blood work will read or if maybe this guy is having some type of unknown reaction that his body is prone to due to an undiagnosed kidney problem for example or whatever. I would much rather be wrong and have him go get some blood work done then have this guy drop dead and be proven right!! Why are so many against bloodwork when it comes to diuretic use, but all for it while on steroids?

 

[The Wolf]

Magnum, I would never of understood what you just said if you said it 2 months ago but now I do and your experience in getting pros ready for competetition is respected. So now I know that most of the bloating caused after competetiton is caused by diuretics, but the funny thing is I got so bloated I couldnt even where my shoe and the doctors treated my edema with diuretics again, best thing is not to touch it in the first place.

If you get your self lean enough and dry enough naturaly you dont need that crap. Dandelion and green tea and vitamin c and stuff like that should be enough.

 

[oldfella]

Rebound effect for sure. But I have to agree with magnum. Playing with diuretics is not necessary. You can drop all the water you want and dry out for a show without them. I have never used them. But to BB's situation. He has a seriuos imbalance especially for it to go on for this long. Get to a doctor and get some help. No advice here other than that. It is time for medical intervention!

 

[homonunculus]

Sam,

I hope you figured this out and are doing OK?...

-R

 

[big_byrd52]

water is coming off, but i am still holding. i started an herbal water pill on monday morning and by mon night my hands were much better. i am back down to 224 but still holding in my calves and ankles. still pretty tired thru the day and the pumps from training are insanely painful with very little work. claves and shins pumped to hell from walking at a slow pace little incline, but low back wasnt screamin like on monday. low carbing and hit 40 minutes on the treadmill then 20 minutes in the sauna to sweat some more off. ill hit cardio and sauna again tomorow morning and night and get back to my 2 a days.

i dont think what i did was abuse by any means, but regardless will be the last time i use aldactone. i rebounded hard last 2 shows years ago also, but i ate like crap after the show. i also think part of it might be an estrogen rebound from dropping adex and nolva and dropping off to just a cc test a week right off the bat, so i added adex back in today also.

dont know if i mentioned it, but i was 207-210 2 weeks out, then weight jumped to 218 the monday of show week and weighed in at 214? wieght settled at 218 by weeks end, then blew up this weekend.

 

[Magnum]

Magnum, I would never of understood what you just said if you said it 2 months ago but now I do and your experience in getting pros ready for competetition is respected. So now I know that most of the bloating caused after competetiton is caused by diuretics, but the funny thing is I got so bloated I couldnt even where my shoe and the doctors treated my edema with diuretics again, best thing is not to touch it in the first place.

If you get your self lean enough and dry enough naturaly you dont need that crap. Dandelion and green tea and vitamin c and stuff like that should be enough.

Thanks bro.

 

[Neanderthal]

Mechanism of action
Aldactone (spironolactone) is a specific pharmacologic antagonist of aldosterone, acting primarily through competitive binding of receptors at the aldosterone-dependent sodium-potassium exchange site in the distal convoluted renal tubule. **** Aldactone causes increased amounts of sodium and water to be excreted, while potassium is retained.********* Aldactone acts both as a diuretic and as an antihypertensive drug by this mechanism. It may be given alone or with other diuretic agents which act more proximally in the renal tubule.

How much salt did you get in after the show? Probably rebound from salt intake after real low salt from the Aldactone. Potassium will help with those insane pumps, try drinking a quart of low soduim v-8 for three days or so and see if ya dont feel better. That mixed with the estrogen rebound is probably your culprit.

 

[big_byrd52]

i did not change salt intake much during the last week. i started to cut it back and felt flat the first day so i kept it in. i usually liberally salt everything with 33% reduced sodium salt.

i will give the v-8 a try.

weight was 221 this morning before cardio and sauna. starting to look tighter again.

****oh, i believe magnum to be correct in that DIUs are very dangerous. While i dont think i abused them, it def threw me out of wack. Some of u may remember after my first show, 4 years ago, i had a severe rebound plus was eating everything in sight. my edema never subsided, and 3 months after the show, after going from 171 to 236 in a couple weeks and holding that, i was hospitalized for paricarditus (sp?)--which is fluid in the sack around the heart. everything was fine luckily and there was no damage, but that is why i was concerned about the water despite going back on diet after the show.

 

[homonunculus]

Sam,

Keep taking care. I still don't think that some blood work would be a bad idea.

I was remembering too what you go through when you're dropping weight for a PL meet - even more stressful than for a BB show...

-R

 

[Boo]

Rebound effect for sure. But I have to agree with magnum. Playing with diuretics is not necessary. You can drop all the water you want and dry out for a show without them. I have never used them. But to BB's situation. He has a seriuos imbalance especially for it to go on for this long. Get to a doctor and get some help. No advice here other than that. It is time for medical intervention!

Have you ever entered contests, oldfela. If so what weight class do you enter and how did you do?

Boo

 

[oldfella]

Have you ever entered contests, oldfela. If so what weight class do you enter and how did you do?

Boo

yea plenty. Mainly open and Masters. 3rd in Australia, 3rd In southern Hemisphere 3rd in a World qualifier are my best placings beside state and regional titles. My very first show was the sunshine coast championships 1st. BW 96kgs (211lbs). My heaviest was 107kgs (235lbs). Looking at jumping back in later this year if I can pull the condition. Looking at around 250 this time. We'll see how we go. Hovering around the 270-275 mark at present.

 

[Boo]

275lbs . . . that's a big boy!

Boo