At The Anzelmo Wellness Center we use plant medicines to help clean your system of opiates, but also to help you to see yourself: your habits, your pains, wounds, traumas, and the roots and cause of your addictions or depression, in such a powerful and clear way. Ibogaine can show you why you have your anger, stubbornness, loneliness, separation, sadness, reactions, and emotional triggers. It can help you release the shame, guilt, and self-judgement. And can help you forgive yourself, for all the suffering you caused others, yourself, and the wrongs that have been done to you.
Ibogaine can be dangerous to those with heart conditions – most of the fatalities reported from ibogaine treatments are as a result of QT Prolongation.
“After each heartbeat, your heart’s electrical system recharges itself in preparation for the next heartbeat. This process is known as repolarization, according to the Mayo Clinic. “In long QT syndrome, your heart muscle takes longer than normal to recharge between beats. This electrical disturbance, which often can be seen on an electrocardiogram (ECG), is called a prolonged QT interval.”
QT Prolongation is often the result of abnormalities in the heart’s electrical system that are either inherited or acquired, due to a medication or an underlying medical condition.
A side effect of ibogaine is that it can slow the heartbeat of healthy individuals with normal heart rates, and increase QT intervals. In a patient with normal heart rhythms, this won’t cause any risk. But in patients who have preexisting QT prolongation, ibogaine can cause the heart to slow too much, posing a risk for ventricular tachyarrhythmias and sudden death.
The staff at The Anzelmo Wellness Center performs an exhaustive medical assessment and rigorous cardiovascular monitoring prior to treatment to prevent any risk to our patients. This includes a comprehensive assessment of the patient’s medical background and current medical conditions. Each patient is given an EKG (electrocardiogram) which measures the electric impulses that pass through the heart, causing it to contract and release.
Our doctors are trained specifically to screen for those who have QT prolongation. Those with an abnormal EKG reading will be seen by an outside cardiac specialist who will map the heart through a 3D rendering to see how it will react under stressful conditions.
Anyone that we treat — normal heart rate or not — will have a heart monitor affixed to their chest during the entire treatment. A doctor and two nurses are with the patient for the duration of the treatment, and an EMT and ambulance are on standby throughout the night.
Those who don’t pass muster with the outside cardiologist can still be treated with ibogaine, but instead of a “flood” dose — 10–25 mg/kg of body weight — they will be given a microdose regimen of the medicine, which means they will get the same amount as a flood dose, but spread out over 14 days. That way there is never a high enough concentration in the body to cause a QT prolongation, but the end of the 14 days, they will have taken enough to end their addiction without withdrawal. It will be administered slowly enough to keep the slow heart rate from being affected.
The Anzelmo Wellness Center is an integrated clinic dedicated to healing severe addiction, deep trauma, and other challenges that life hands us. Our treatment philosophy combines the best of Western treatment modalities with ancient healing techniques and traditional indigenous wisdom.
