Once your blood clots, it can cause a chain reaction leading to an Invokana heart attack. Invokana is an SGLT2 inhibitor drug, which prevents your kidneys from absorbing sugar. Instead, your body eliminates extra glucose through urine. Theoretically, taking this pill should make regulating your blood sugar easier than ever. But recent studies show it can also cause unexpected side effects, including doubled toe, leg and foot amputation risks.
Too Much Glucose
Invokana helps people with type 2 diabetes absorb less sugar. “SGLT2” stands for “sodium glucose co-transporter,” and the 2 represents the particular transporter that causes kidney glucose reabsorption. It’s an easy solution to a difficult problem for many people with type 2 diabetes. But after taking Invokana regularly, one problem still keeps happening:
There’s still too much glucose.
Stopping glucose absorption in the kidneys doesn’t make that sugar dissipate. It has to go somewhere, and the body pushes it out through urine. That works well until there’s too much glucose in your urine.
Urine Draws Nutrients from the Blood
Every person who’s sucked a lollipop knows when your inner cheek puckers from too much sugar. You have to lick your lips or massage the spot inside your mouth to get the sugar to dissolve. That’s exactly what sugar does to your bladder. However, your bladder doesn’t have saliva glands to help dissolve excess sugar. Add too much sugar into water, and the mixture becomes like sludge.
The bladder has to pull nutrients and liquid from your blood in order to dissolve that extra glucose.
The Blood Reacts to Lost Nutrients
When your bladder pulls nutrients and liquid from blood to accommodate extra glucose, two things happen:
- your body produces extra ketones (acids that flow in your blood)
- that blood now has lower plasma levels
Your blood needs that liquid your bladder pulled out. That liquid’s called plasma. You need a good balance between red blood cells and plasma to keep blood flowing smoothly. Going back to childhood memories, the lazy river at the water park is like your body’s vascular system. People floating in their inner tubes are blood platelets (and white blood cells and many other things in the blood) and the water is the plasma that keeps everything flowing. If the park were to divert the water from the lazy river to the bathrooms, then people in their inner tubes start to scrape against the walls more, they start dragging on the bottom of the pool, and they become clogged.
Add to that mix extra ketones, or acids. The acids make your red blood cells stickier and your blood becomes somewhat toxic. Then, it delivers less oxygen and fewer nutrients. Finally, it delivers more acid to your kidneys and other body parts.
When your red blood cells stick together, that’s called a blood clot. And blood clots can cause an Invokana heart attack or stroke.
How to Respond to Your Invokana Heart Attack
The manufacturer did not provide information to doctors or consumers about the possibility of Invokana heart attack or stroke. If you or your loved one suffered an Invokana heart attack, stroke, blood clots or amputations, we can help you get the justice and compensation you deserve. Other injured Invokana patients report potentially fatal complications, such as diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) and kidney failure. Get your free, two-minute evaluation today to see if you may qualify for a no-obligation consultation with an attorney.
Related:Invokana Side Effects – Type 2 Diabetic Toe Amputations & Other Risks
Lori Polemenakos is Director of Consumer Content and SEO strategist for LeadingResponse, a legal marketing company. An award-winning journalist, writer and editor based in Dallas, Texas, she's produced articles for major brands such as Match.com, Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, Xfinity, Mail.com, and edited several published books. Since 2016, she's published hundreds of articles about Social Security disability, workers' compensation, veterans' benefits, personal injury, mass tort, auto accident claims, bankruptcy, employment law and other related legal issues.