ephedra diet pills

[Holly]

A few years ago before they took it off of the market- I used to take ephedra diet pills, could that have caused my ppcm?

[heartfulloflove]

From my understanding, most heart side effects from ephedra were due to serious rhythm disturbances, though I've seen reported associations with heart failure. It seems low on the list though.

My guess would be that one already had to be prone to HF or have other factors going on for ephedra to cause a progression to heart failure. I know a lot of people, quite unfortunately, who have heart problems (arrhythmia) from having taken it. More people than you'd want to imagine, though the ones I talk to are eating disorders sufferers who self-admittedly took waaaay too much of it. Many do recover within a couple of years though, or at least the rhythm problems go away, even among those who actually abused the drug. I would wonder about the relation between prior use of ehpedra followed by a pregnancy which resulted in PPCM myself. If it was years prior to the pregnancy, I would tend to be more doubtful it had any major determining effect, particularly if you had no symptoms prior to your PPCM.

It can't hurt to mention it to your cardiologist and ask if they believe there is any correlation.