thinking of indapamide

When you sqay that "somthing has helped", was this result evaluated by laboartory blood or other fluid tests? Turmeric, beetroot, coenzyme-10, vit c and magnesium may be beneficial for otherwise healthy poeple but do not cure serious ailments. You need  a blood test for fasting glucose, creatinine (kidney functions), urea and electrolytes,

uric acid (gout?) TSH (thyroid). Let a doctor prescribe these!

 

Everything can have a side effect, even water if excessively consumed. 

Of course, you know this about alcohol.

hi ian funny enough i have invested in a new blood pressure monitor, and my average readings are now 145/75 the lowest they have been in ages no meds,same diet,no extra exercise.my sleep is a damn site better i dont feel down ,no persistent cough,no swollen ankles.for the last five years i have listened to doctors and taken the meds lisinopril never brought my bp down to below the magic figure amlodapine made me ill so my view is something is going to kill me eventually and i would rather enjoy life until then.

Hi Nellybear,

Love that sentiment: "...my view is something is going to kill me eventually and I would rather enjoy life until then." That's my motto too! It's got me well past my biblical three-score years and ten, and I plan to continue living by it.

I'm not saying we should neglect our health - far from it. A healthy lifestyle is part of enjoying life. It's also useful to get occasional checks on things like BP, blood glucose, liver, kidney and thyroid function, bone density etc. to make sure we're on the right track. Yearly dental checks are indispensible, as dental decay, plaque and gum disease are serious contributors to cardiovascular problems. Regular eye examinations too: it would be almost criminal to go blind because of an easily-treated condition like glaucoma.

That being said, I'm not prepared to live my life in thrall to the doctors. I'm happy to take the L-thyroxine my doctor prescribes for an under-active thyroid as it provides a clear benefit with no side-effects. It isn't a medication in the strict sense anyway, being a synthetic copy of a hormone my body doesn't make enough of.

Periodically my doctor and I have a minor run-in over things he wants to prescribe which clearly (to me anyway) aren't necessary. For example, I've had GERD for 40 years but identified the triggers early on, and it's long since ceased to be a serious problem. These days I get literally two or three attacks per year, always during the night and my own fault due to late-night dietary indiscretions. I find a single dose of domperidone (Motilium) works immediately, but of course it's gone to prescription only these days all over Europe, due to occasional heart arrhythmias. When I recently asked my doctor if he would prescribe it, he immediately wanted to put me on omeprazole, which he said I'd have to take on a daily basis as it has no immediate effect on attacks of GERD. I gently pointed out the absurdity of taking a drug that isn't without side-effects every day to deal with a problem that only occurs twice a year, and he eventually gave in gracefully - but only after reiterating that omeprazole is the drug of choice for GERD.

On other occasions I've quietly accepted prescriptions to keep him happy, but not had them filled. This happened on a spring day when I was suffering from my usual short-lived tree pollen allergy and inadvertently produced a single asthmatic cough during the consultation. He immediately prescribed a steroid inhaler without even asking me about the cough! I smiled and thanked him, but never got the inhaler. He's a good sort and I know I sometimes give him a hard time, so I try to be kind to him when I can.

Doctors can sometimes infantilise their patients. This isn't because of any evil plan on the part of doctors, but because the majority of patients seem to want to surrender full responsibility for their health to the medical profession, so they assume we're all the same. And there's nothing wrong in surrendering all responsibility to your doctor if that's what you want. Equally, don't be afraid to approach your doctor from a position of equality if you want more of a say in your treatment. He may be the expert but it's your body!

Lily, wise to avoid Omeprazole in case you are one of the patients like me who reacts badly to it.  Have you tried daily 'live' yoghurt to help keep the GERD at bay - apart from your late night dietary indiscretions, of course!  Long-term PPIs can also put you at risk of thinning of the bones (osteoporosis).  Stay healthy.

I sometimes eat live yoghourt, and have tried intensive courses of it over the years for various symptoms. Apart from anything else, it normally tastes better than the other stuff. Fortunately I can keep the GERD under control by eating very little bread - and none at all after 2pm - and avoiding excessively fatty or acidic foods (and especially combinations of the two) in the evening.

Sometimes the simplest measures can help too. I think the biggest discovery I ever made was that raising the head of my mattress slightly and sleeping with an extra pillow slashed my night-time attacks by half. I find avoiding constipation helps - fortunately no longer a problem since I started taking magnesium for high BP 15 years ago! - and I discovered that not wearing tight trousers made a big difference. This, together with the effect of constipation, is borne out by more recent theories that it's gas being pushed up from the intestines that forces the sphincter open. I always kind of knew this, even before the idea became fashionable.

With you all the way on the osteoporosis thing. I don't need anything that's going to make that worse. I get two-yearly bone density scans, which have been showing osteopaenia from the moment I started getting them - after the menopause at 45. My mother, grandmother and great-aunts all had the same problem. My bone density goes up as well as down over the years, sometimes approaching normal levels, but I've so far never gone into full-scale osteoporosis. Nor do I plan to! I manage it with weight-bearing exercise, supplements of calcium, magnesium, vit D3, vit K2 and a homeopathic preparation of the BMP2 and BMP4 genes.

There's a lot we can do for all manner of chronic conditions by making use of diagnostic tests then applying a little science for ourselves, without always resorting to medication.

Hi, we have been taking Kefir and it has helped with GERD also ACV ( good quality) watered down a little with apple juice.

We dont eat after 7pm and have been sleeping much better.