Dementia patients with syncope episodes after consuming protein shakes?

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babygirlga Asked September 2020

Dementia patients with syncope episodes after consuming protein shakes?

It's been a while since I've posted. But I want to see if there are others that have encountered a peculiar situation taking care of a loved one that has dementia. And, I apologize if I am all over the place, my mom just had a syncope episode about an hour ago and I think my BP is off the charts still.

My mom really likes Ensure/Boost drinks. She's had several syncope episodes that I notice seem to occur after she's consumed an additional Boost/Ensure within an hour of having one (she will insist and throw a fit if I don't give it to her). I don't do this often, sometimes I just redirect her to another topic and she forgets the demand for an additional drink.

Has anyone else had encountered this?

In November, she was hospitalized due to such an episode. Ultimately, the doctor's removed her from several medications (blood pressure meds) because it seemed her heart rate was very low. Now she is only on one BP medication (she takes one pill in the morning and one at night).

This evening, she insisted on an additional Ensure and I was exhausted and relented. Not long afterwards, she fainted. She comes to, and starts vomiting and then faints completely. The ambulance came and took her vitals and everything was back to normal. So we didn't make a trip to the hospital this time. I sent the information from the EMT to her doctor via an app we use to communicate; normally, if the doctor feels the vitals are concerning, they will call and have me take her into the emergency room.

I'm just wondering if the Ensure/Boost is the culprit?? Sometimes it's all she wants, she'll pick around the food I prepare and ask for an Ensure.

Alzheimer's & Dementia Medications Senior Health

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score 0 · Answer 1

syncope, vasovagel,...seizures. Was all the same to me..every other month I called 911. .then we stopped the donepizil n BP meds which never needed cuz low n I could breathe again. No more episodes. At times she would fade off but mildly n just for a moment...just be aware of that look n I would guide her, rest. With my mom...when she moved, I moved. U gotta watch her keep her safe, sometimes movement doesn’t flow n will freeze up. Don’t let her get up too quickly have her pump her feet before she rises...n ensure plus? Always. Her appetite has already slowed. She needs it. Later, I learned pedia lite also good.

also if she has a bowl movement I wouldn’t let her get up too quickly.

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score 2 · Answer 2

Try replacing her protein drink with one lower in sugar. I don't have personal experience but CorePower (by Fairlife) is lower and readily available, and if you do a search I'm sure you can find a few good chocolate ones. If your mom balks at the change in brand and flavor you can mix Ensure with a replacement brand until she is only getting the lower sugar one. Also serve it less cold (by putting it in the microwave for a moment) if you think the cold is (or part of) the problem. The vagus nerve thing does weird stuff to seniors. My MIL often passes out on the toilet when she has a b.m. due to her vagus nerve issue.

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score 1 · Answer 3

Try making milkshakes for her with just milk and a banana some ice cubes and whip them up in a blender. Add some vanilla or almond flavoring and see if she likes that instead. I know that in sure and boost have a lot of protein in it they’re hard on the kidneys especially for older people at least that’s what I was told by my mother’s nurse.You could also try giving her half a bottle and adding just milk to it. That’s what I would do with my mom do that and I will also just make her plain milkshakes and she was fine with that they don’t have to have protein all the time.

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score 0 · Answer 4

WOW, JoAnn, what great thinking and research on this one. I find this so fascinating.

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score 2 · Answer 5

I just read where sugar levels can effect this especially diabetics. The average grams of sugar that should be taken in by a woman is is 25 per day. Ensure has 23 grams Boost has 20. Both Boost and ensure show sugar as an ingredient first which means its a main ingredient. So maybe its spiking Moms sugar too fast. Also Blood pressure can cause it.

After reading the ingredients, I don't see where this stuff is good for you. Might as well by a milkshake and throw in some protein powder.

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You are my favorite "Thinks like the best Nurse" candidate for the day JoAnn. What great researching and thinking on this. I wonder and would not be a bit surprised if this is not the truth. Don't you wonder why they would load these things with the sugar they load into every single other thing we take?
And BabyGirlGa, what a great post and "mystery solving" on your own part. I am quite fascinated with this. I so seldom hear of people who will take ensure or boost in any great amounts. I agree. This could be a sugar thing.

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score 1 · Answer 6

BabyGirlGa, there's usually a certain amount of bending, either sitting or getting up. If I now recall correctly, bending over might have been one of the triggers of syncope episodes. I've forgotten a lot about those episodes.

In fact I'm now remembering that one of if not the first episodes occurred when Dad was in the cloak room at his church, bending over to get his boots or something like that, when he passed out and went down. At least there were a lot of boots to cushion his fall.

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score 1 · Answer 7

I just remembered when my father had syncope episodes; medical people explained the difficulty of determining cause, but his seemed to occur when getting up quickly. At that time he was taking a med for A-Fib, but it also was used to lower BP (not why he was taking it). We eventually concluded that it lowered his BP so quickly on standing that syncope resulted.

I'm wondering if this is happening with your mother? Have her faints happened close to getting up from a chair, or some similar activity of movement?

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Yes actually. This time she was going to the restroom. In the past, it was always after she walked a few feet from where she was sitting/reclining.

(0)

score 2 · Answer 8

Lealonnie, great response, and right on point.

BabyGirlga, I wonder if cold water or iced tea don't provoke a response b/c they don't have either any preservatives, additive or whatever, and are literally more pure in form, especially water.   If iced tea is based on an herbal tea, that's another factor to consider.

I've seen the ingredient list for Ensure and although I don't remember it, I think it had a lot of different ingredients, and perhaps some chemicals.    They might be reacting to an overdose from the second bottle of it.

Back in the late 1980s I realized I was allergic to sodium nitrate and nitrite in foods, especially strawberries.   So I avoided it in everything, including medicine, as an anesthetist told me that preservatives were used in meds. I had no idea of that and was shocked.

Every once in a while I'll have a reaction, and am reminded that I need to check ingredients of everything that's not natural, although it would be better if I could limit my intake only to natural foods and ingredients.    But there's always chocolate and I haven't figured yet figured out a way to eliminate the food of the gods from my food intake.   After all, if it's meant for gods, it must be good, right?

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score 2 · Answer 9

Seems to be related to drinking COLD beverages! Take a look:

https://www.google.com/search?q=passing+out+after+drinking+cold+water&rlz=1C1CHBD_enUS896US896&oq=passing+out+after+drinking+&aqs=chrome.3.69i57j0l7.8039j1j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Can you pass out from drinking cold water?
“The cold ice water gets into the esophagus and the stomach, and there are nerves along the esophagus and stomach known as the vagus nerves,” Dr. Schultz explains. “These nerves can fire up, send a signal to the brain and actually cause an individual to pass out and lose consciousness briefly.”

Best of luck!!

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Thank you!! It's odd that it never happens when she drinks cold water or iced tea?!?

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Dementia patients with syncope episodes after consuming protein shakes?

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