Reta and arrhythmia

Bioexplorer

Bioexplorer

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Is there anyone else out there willing to take the risk of retatrutide when they already have a history of arrhythmia? I went in knowing my heart rate would likely climb somewhat, but what I hadn't grasped was that phase 2 and 3 trials barred anyone with prior arrhythmia, out of worry that aflutter or AFib might come back. Both my wife and I have been treated for a-flutter before.

About 4 months into reta, at a final dose of 3mg, my spouse had a-flutter return. She had gone 1 year without symptoms beforehand. We halted the reta right away and got in to see the Cardiologist as soon as we could. She brought up the retatrutide, and his response was that a connection to the arrhythmia seemed unlikely, though it couldn't be excluded. What struck me was that he advised her to go back on a GLP-1 right away. Tirzepatide was his strong recommendation, for a few reasons... a large body of safety data exists, there is solid evidence it lowers cardiac events such as afib and a-flutter, and above all, it actually carries FDA approval! Can't argue with that. She is back in sinus rhythm and doing well on tirz.

As for me, no issues so far. If anything, my long term PVCs have diminished. On top of that, I have too much reta in the freezer. Switching isn't an option for me now.
 
That sounds a lot like AFIB, which is what I dealt with 4 years ago. I take Metaprolol and lisinipril for it. It hasn't returned since. I titrated up to 10mg/week on Reta and had no problems.
 
Bioexplorer said:

Is there anyone else out there willing to take the risk of retatrutide when they already have a history of arrhythmia? I went in knowing my heart rate would likely climb somewhat, but what I hadn't grasped was that phase 2 and 3 trials barred anyone with prior arrhythmia, out of worry that aflutter or AFib might come back. Both my wife and I have been treated for a-flutter before.

About 4 months into reta, at a final dose of 3mg, my spouse had a-flutter return. She had gone 1 year without symptoms beforehand. We halted the reta right away and got in to see the Cardiologist as soon as we could. She brought up the retatrutide, and his response was that a connection to the arrhythmia seemed unlikely, though it couldn't be excluded. What struck me was that he advised her to go back on a GLP-1 right away. Tirzepatide was his strong recommendation, for a few reasons... a large body of safety data exists, there is solid evidence it lowers cardiac events such as afib and a-flutter, and above all, it actually carries FDA approval! Can't argue with that. She is back in sinus rhythm and doing well on tirz.

As for me, no issues so far. If anything, my long term PVCs have diminished. On top of that, I have too much reta in the freezer. Switching isn't an option for me now.
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Those are solid observations!

Reta gets tossed around so casually in this space that a lot of folks may not realize it hasn't even received FDA approval yet.
 
Calm Logic said:

TRIUMPH-Outcomes is a related trial that is still running, with a completion date in 2029:



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trials.lilly.com

As for the results from TRIUMPH-3:


https://investor.lilly.com/news-releases/news-release-details/lillys-triple-agonist-retatrutide-successful-two-additional



https://medical.lilly.com/us/products/answers/were-there-cardiovascular-related-adverse-events-in-the-retatrutide-triumph-clinical-trials-in-patients-with-overweight-or-obesity-with-or-without-type-2-diabetes-387676
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It will be quite interesting to see how these results turn out. A shame that placebo was chosen for the control group instead of tirzepatide, which is currently the best GLP-1 drug available for these conditions.
 
I've dealt with PVCs and a history of SVTs (which were ablated before I started reta). With reta, particularly when combined with alcohol, I could feel palpitations. They went away after a few days, I delayed my dosing, gradually titrated back up, and then the same thing hit again roughly 1-2 weeks later following a dose increase (at that point I was dosing 2x per week). How many dose bumps set this off, I can't say for sure, but it was more than once.

In time, I began using electrolytes containing potassium and magnesium. (Magnesium tablets had no effect.) I went through a few brands of drink mix packets. Ended up choosing Nutricost since it's inexpensive and contains a lot of ingredients without excessive salt. I used it daily. That fixed the issue. Actually, I felt better than I ever had. It worked so well that I quit using them, and sure enough, my heartbeat went bad once I stopped. Restarting makes it go away. It resolves quickly.

These will never fully leave me, but I'm confident reta worsened it and that electrolyte mixes improved it. I'm also confident alcohol worsens it, yet I won't give up any of those 3.

aFib and flutter carry more risk, so I'm not sure I'd have been so casual about it, though I also can't rule out that I (re)developed those too (I had them for a period following heart surgery.)

I'm getting close to goal. I'll likely move to maintenance on Tirz.
 
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