Patient & Family Testimonials
While having Nathan tested, I witnessed the power of this machine. I knew Dr. Rhodes was doing some studies to see if it could be used to help people with other types of diseases. So I told Dr. Rhodes about my Mitral Valve Prolapse.
When I was 19 years old I started having heart palpitations. I was always thin, but when the palpitations started I dropped down to 90 pounds. When you consider that I am 6’1” – that is very thin. Because of the palpitations I could not sleep at night. And because I could not sleep at night I could not stay awake during the day. Soon I started having pain in my chest and neck and arms, angina (a tightening of the chest), and cold sweat along with the palpitations.
Over the next 6 months I visited 3 cardiologists. I even went to Emergency one time because I thought I was going to die. But none of these doctors could find anything wrong with my heart. This is because my symptoms were episodal at first. When I complained about my weight loss I was told how fortunate I was to be young and thin. (I’m guessing their other patients must have been old and over-weight.)
When I returned home from college that year my parents took me to our family doctor. After looking at me and listening to my heart he said there was something seriously wrong. He heard the clicking noise in my heart that is the hallmark of Mitral Value Prolapse. And after doing an echocardiogram, which was somewhat of a new technology at the time, I was in fact diagnosed with having a Mitral Valve Prolapse.
When you have a Mitral Valve Prolapse (MVP) a valve in the heart (the mitral valve) does not close completely when the heart pumps. It leaks. There is actually more than a small percentage of people walking around with MVP, but most people with MVP will never experience any symptoms. And in most cases it is the not necessarily the leak that is the problem. It is the brain attempting to compensate for the leak. That is what causes the palpitations.
So beginning at age 19 I was put on a drug called Inderal. It is a beta-blocker that slows your heart down. Every day for the last 27 years I have taken no less than 120mg to 160mg of Inderal. For the first couple of years I took a lot more than that each day. And even after 27 years, my heart will not let me forget to take the Inderal. If I so much as miss even one pill, my heart will start pounding and I will experience chest pain and other scary symptoms within minutes.
I also tried another drug called Toprol for a brief period of time. Most people with MVP take Toprol, but I didn’t like it. If I was started having bad palpitations, I could always take more Inderal and that would knock out the palpitations. But since Toprol was a long acting drug, more didn’t seem to help. So I went back to Inderal.
Although this drug saved my life, I know that taking any drug everyday for years and years is not good. All drugs have some level of toxicity. There are also side effects. So over the last few years I have been on a quest to find some way to get off of the Inderal. I have tried numerous supplements to control the heart palpitations. And I did find that I could take L-Taurine (an amino acid) and ginger if I was having an episode instead of taking additional Inderal. But I could not use it on a regular basis in place of the Inderal. I remained married to this drug. That was until I met Dr. Rhodes.
When I saw how much this treatment helped my son I asked if this treatment could help my MVPS. Dr. Rhodes told me that he could not treat me for MVPS, but he could test me for a neuropathy. Interestingly, my foot and hand temperatures were well below normal. They were also uneven. So since I was already in Corpus Christi with my son, I decided to do the treatment also.
So I went through testing along with my son. The first thing I noticed is that my feet were warm. I’ve always had cold hands and cold feet ever since I could remember, but no more. The next thing I noticed is that I slept like I did when I was a boy. If this machine did nothing else, it was worth it just for these two things alone. Not only did I get a great night’s sleep, it was the first time I can ever remember going to bed without socks on.
After about 3 months on Dr Rhodes treatment I found that I could get by on less Inderal. Less is best. And I was really happy. For the first time in 28 years was taking less than 100mg per day. Dr. Rhodes told me this could be a side benefit of the treatment I was doing for my neuropathy.
Six months later I was down to 40mg per day. This is pretty amazing considering how much medicine I had been taking for so long. And at 40mg per day I was comfortable and not experiencing any angina or palpitations.
I stayed at 40mg for a long time. Once or twice I tried only taking 20mg. But any less, than 40mg and I would be hurting the next day. But around Christmas time (2008) I felt like I could take less, and I did. I was now down to 20mg per day.
I stayed at 20mg for about 4 months. And then I decided to see if I could skip it altogether one night. To my surprise I was fine the next morning. I felt no symptoms of MVP. I stayed completely off of Inderal for 3 days. But after the third day my chest was starting to feel heavy so I went back on 20mg. It felt really good taking the Inderal again. And I continued to take it for about a week. But after a week I felt like I could do without it, for good.
I am now almost completely off of heart medicine. As of today I have only had one 20mg pill in the last 8 days. Not only do I not have any symptoms, I feel GREAT!! When you have been on this type of drug for this long, you can’t imagine how good it is to be drug-free. No more side-effects and no more palpitations!!
This is truly an amazing treatment. Dr. Rhodes is a genius.
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