Blood Pressure Medication - side effects

User avatar
Mick F
Spambuster
Posts: 56359
Joined: 7 Jan 2007, 11:24am
Location: Tamar Valley, Cornwall

Re: Blood Pressure Medication - side effects

Post by Mick F »

Mick F wrote:I'll be making an appointment with the doc as soon as I can.
Saw him this afternoon.
Comment from the Doc regarding my comments to him:
We're rapidly running out of alternatives!

He's given me some Bendroflumethiazide tablets 2.5mg.

First one tomorrow morning.
Fingers crossed, but I reckon by the weekend, they'll be getting disposed of just like the last three lots.
Mick F. Cornwall
User avatar
Spinners
Posts: 1678
Joined: 6 Dec 2008, 6:58pm
Location: Port Talbot

Re: Blood Pressure Medication - side effects

Post by Spinners »

I think one of the reasons I knuckled down and 'stuck with the program' is my irrational fear of such water tablets (and the lack of public loos :lol: ).
Cycling UK Life Member
PBP Ancien (2007)
User avatar
NATURAL ANKLING
Posts: 13780
Joined: 24 Oct 2012, 10:43pm
Location: English Riviera

Re: Blood Pressure Medication - side effects

Post by NATURAL ANKLING »

Hi,
I was on bendroflou.... for quite a while before I had problems, so if you get through initial body adjustment they might never affect you.........
NA Thinks Just End 2 End Return + Bivvy - Some day Soon I hope
You'll Still Find Me At The Top Of A Hill
Please forgive the poor Grammar I blame it on my mobile and phat thinkers.
123malford
Posts: 104
Joined: 12 Nov 2011, 5:51pm

Re: Blood Pressure Medication - side effects

Post by 123malford »

"We're rapidly running out of alternatives!"

So has an angiotensin receptor blocker been ruled out, such as Losartan etc ?
User avatar
Mick F
Spambuster
Posts: 56359
Joined: 7 Jan 2007, 11:24am
Location: Tamar Valley, Cornwall

Re: Blood Pressure Medication - side effects

Post by Mick F »

Dunno.
All I know, is what he said. Personally I've never heard of angiotensin receptor blockers. I must look them up.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angiotens ... antagonist

First of my new tablets this morning.
All ok so far.
Mick F. Cornwall
User avatar
mjr
Posts: 20308
Joined: 20 Jun 2011, 7:06pm
Location: Norfolk or Somerset, mostly
Contact:

Re: Blood Pressure Medication - side effects

Post by mjr »

Spinners wrote:By any chance, are you reading the leaflets contained inside the packets? If so, don't!

A work colleague told me that there's so many reported side effects (ranging from baldness to impotence) that it will prey on your mind if you read the leaflet as you will invariably say, "Me too"!

And yet, if you don't read the leaflets, you won't know the drug interactions and could easily hurt yourself. For example, one of my current meds should not be taken in the four hours before or hour after the other and no-one bothered to tell me that.

Like Mick, I had years of statin side-effects before attributing them to it, despite having read the leaflets at various times.
MJR, mostly pedalling 3-speed roadsters. KL+West Norfolk BUG incl social easy rides http://www.klwnbug.co.uk
All the above is CC-By-SA and no other implied copyright license to Cycle magazine.
User avatar
mariobryant
Posts: 1
Joined: 16 Mar 2017, 11:18am

Re: Blood Pressure Medication - side effects

Post by mariobryant »

My Dad is turning into a zombie because his BP is currently around 74/60. He has a pacemaker and had fluid in lungs the other week, so in addition to the Lisinopril and Coreg, he is now taking Lasix. He has lost 40 pounds over the past 8 months and is too weak to do anything. He also seem very confused and debilitated. His doctor keeps doing all these tests and says that he does have heart failure, but we don’t think it is at the extreme level.

He is at the point where he says that he is willing to risk a stroke or heart attack if he could just feel halfway normal again. He is 95 and had been fairly active until he started on the medicines. Everyone has noticed a big change in him.
Would an opinion from another doctor be a good idea?

Unfortunately we have no geriatric specialists in our town.
Seems like anything that the drug reps bring in ends up being given to him and we are starting to feel like he is an experiment.
User avatar
Mick F
Spambuster
Posts: 56359
Joined: 7 Jan 2007, 11:24am
Location: Tamar Valley, Cornwall

Re: Blood Pressure Medication - side effects

Post by Mick F »

Sorry, never got back to this thread.
I've given up on BP meds. Completely given up.

I care not a jot. I am who I am, and I'm fit and heathy and happy.
Mick F. Cornwall
User avatar
NATURAL ANKLING
Posts: 13780
Joined: 24 Oct 2012, 10:43pm
Location: English Riviera

Re: Blood Pressure Medication - side effects

Post by NATURAL ANKLING »

Mick F wrote:Sorry, never got back to this thread.
I've given up on BP meds. Completely given up.

I care not a jot. I am who I am, and I'm fit and heathy and happy.

I realise that you have given up on bicycle stats etc,
But you could live another 25 years if you just take the meds that will keep you from stroke or heart attack coming on.
We all dream of going back to our youth, like I will the next time I climb aboard my old road bike for the first time in over twenty years.

"Better to be a tiger for a day than a sheep for a lifetime." :)
NA Thinks Just End 2 End Return + Bivvy - Some day Soon I hope
You'll Still Find Me At The Top Of A Hill
Please forgive the poor Grammar I blame it on my mobile and phat thinkers.
User avatar
Mick F
Spambuster
Posts: 56359
Joined: 7 Jan 2007, 11:24am
Location: Tamar Valley, Cornwall

Re: Blood Pressure Medication - side effects

Post by Mick F »

The question for me, and it's not been really answered, is that when I'm at home and relaxed, my BP is low.
110/70 sort of numbers.

However, if I'm not relaxed, it's high. 160/100 sort of numbers.
It's a fact that I have stress issues, and if I'm being measured by a professional, my BP is high ................ so they then diagnose high BP and want to put me on medication. Each of the medications they've given me produce unacceptable side effects .............. so I've stopped taking them.

So, my question is, which figure is the valid one?
High, or Low?
Relaxed, or Tense?
Mick F. Cornwall
softlips
Posts: 667
Joined: 12 Dec 2016, 8:51pm

Re: Blood Pressure Medication - side effects

Post by softlips »

Mick F wrote:The question for me, and it's not been really answered, is that when I'm at home and relaxed, my BP is low.
110/70 sort of numbers.

However, if I'm not relaxed, it's high. 160/100 sort of numbers.
It's a fact that I have stress issues, and if I'm being measured by a professional, my BP is high ................ so they then diagnose high BP and want to put me on medication. Each of the medications they've given me produce unacceptable side effects .............. so I've stopped taking them.

So, my question is, which figure is the valid one?
High, or Low?
Relaxed, or Tense?


NICE BP measurement advice here https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg127/ ... d-pressure I've never known any GP or nurse do it by the book.

Take at least five measurements at various times during the day, discard the highest and lowest and look at what's left. Have you had a cardiac echo (ultrasound) to look at your ventricular wall thickness? Good idea particularly if you excercise a lot.
User avatar
NATURAL ANKLING
Posts: 13780
Joined: 24 Oct 2012, 10:43pm
Location: English Riviera

Re: Blood Pressure Medication - side effects

Post by NATURAL ANKLING »

Hi,
Mick F wrote:The question for me, and it's not been really answered, is that when I'm at home and relaxed, my BP is low.
110/70 sort of numbers.

However, if I'm not relaxed, it's high. 160/100 sort of numbers.
It's a fact that I have stress issues, and if I'm being measured by a professional, my BP is high ................ so they then diagnose high BP and want to put me on medication. Each of the medications they've given me produce unacceptable side effects .............. so I've stopped taking them.

So, my question is, which figure is the valid one?
High, or Low?
Relaxed, or Tense?


I do have a similar problem, almost identical.
Are you still measuring your own BP at home at same time each day :?: That's important.
Mines been 160 / 100 too and then ......well now it drops to 110 / 77.
I have only been on three outdoor rides this year!
Suffered Facet joint problems with my spine, old age.
Before Xmas I was tuning down my meds and all was well but pain and anti-inflammatory meds and not doing my 9 hrs a week cycling mean my BP rises to 145 / 95 in about a week or two.
Normally I start feeling ill then, but this time I have been OK as I managed turbo rides etc.

I measure My BP in the morning some time after breakfast and in the eve when I am relaxed.
Getting someone else to take your BP will always give an elevated reading, especially at the docs etc.
Are you being good and keeping a daily log................ :? Or at least measuring it every day at same time, no good after a meal or stint at the pub.
Does you BP change after a ride, say next day?
My BP can shoot up like the other day when I tore a strip off the usual Mobile user :evil:
This is all normal.
If you take a log into docs and it only high when you visit then I would say that is normal.
NA Thinks Just End 2 End Return + Bivvy - Some day Soon I hope
You'll Still Find Me At The Top Of A Hill
Please forgive the poor Grammar I blame it on my mobile and phat thinkers.
User avatar
Mick F
Spambuster
Posts: 56359
Joined: 7 Jan 2007, 11:24am
Location: Tamar Valley, Cornwall

Re: Blood Pressure Medication - side effects

Post by Mick F »

I've given up taking readings. They were all good, because I can predict when it's low.
I can also predict (and feel) it getting high.

The local health centre has a DIY machine.
I can go there and take my BP, but relaxing? No way at all. :lol:

I notice that the advice from NICE doesn't mention stress vs relaxing.

It's called hyperTENSION for a reason?
Mick F. Cornwall
User avatar
NATURAL ANKLING
Posts: 13780
Joined: 24 Oct 2012, 10:43pm
Location: English Riviera

Re: Blood Pressure Medication - side effects

Post by NATURAL ANKLING »

Hi,
Your doctor sounds patient.
If I did not monitor my BP every day or so I would be in right state.
If you don't keep a log or at least monitor your BP and every time you visit your doctor its high, then they would not be doing your job if they did not attempt to help you.............................they are duty bound.
NA Thinks Just End 2 End Return + Bivvy - Some day Soon I hope
You'll Still Find Me At The Top Of A Hill
Please forgive the poor Grammar I blame it on my mobile and phat thinkers.
User avatar
mjr
Posts: 20308
Joined: 20 Jun 2011, 7:06pm
Location: Norfolk or Somerset, mostly
Contact:

Re: Blood Pressure Medication - side effects

Post by mjr »

softlips wrote:NICE BP measurement advice here https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg127/ ... d-pressure I've never known any GP or nurse do it by the book.

Take at least five measurements at various times during the day, discard the highest and lowest and look at what's left. Have you had a cardiac echo (ultrasound) to look at your ventricular wall thickness? Good idea particularly if you excercise a lot.

My wife's aunt's GP apparently does, but I've never seen a medic that does either (and I've seen quite a few over 30+ years of illness - but BP is only a complicating factor for me, not a primary one). I did once have a 24h BP monitor but the dratted thing felt like it wanted to break my arm when it tried to take a measurement while I was cycling!

How does one get a cardiac echo, why would one have it and what would they be looking for from wall thickness?
MJR, mostly pedalling 3-speed roadsters. KL+West Norfolk BUG incl social easy rides http://www.klwnbug.co.uk
All the above is CC-By-SA and no other implied copyright license to Cycle magazine.
Post Reply