I know its was amlodipine!

In 1999 I was prescribed Pfizer's ISTIN (amlodipine) which I was quite happily taking alongside Thyroxine (for underactive thyroid). Then in 2007 Pfizer's patent on ISTIN expired and Amlodipine was produced by many different manufacturers. My yearly BP test readings were anything between 125/72 to 135/80 .....absolutely fine. Then 2 weeks ago I went to my GP to seek assurance that the reddening of my palms was nothing to do with my thyroid. He said no and that sometimes occurs with amlodipine but most likely to be Raynaud's. That was quite a relief and then I mentioned the pounding heart with ectopic beats which I was getting fed up with. He took my BP and it was 190/90! I was really shocked and so was he. I had a BP machine so was asked to take twice daily readings for a week and they averaged out at about 160/80. Too high so this week I have been prescribed perindopril to be taken with the amlodipine.

I feel fit and well during the day but for some months at night I have been woken by horrible anxiety attacks for no apparent reason. I have only slept fitfully and again first thing in the morning a knot in my stressed. Now I put this down to getting older...I am 69. It never occurred to me until now that it could be the Amlodipine!

I am going to experiment. I have dropped the amlodipine for the last 2 days and taken only perindopril. My blood pressure is now registering within the normal parameters and last night I slept through without any anxiety attacks. The pounding thumping heartbeat has quietened and no ectopic beats.

I have been to the pharmacist and changed a packet of unopened amlodipine tablets to a different manufacturer . I aim to phase out the perindopril and go back to amlodipine with new manufacturer.

My female reasoning is that if my BP stays as it should be, I don't think I'll be doing myself any harm. Hopefully!

Sorry! This ..."I have only slept fitfully and again first thing in the morning a knot in my stressed" should have been a " a knot in my stomach and feeling stressed"

I'm 21 and I'm taking this drug 10mg Amlodipine for my hypertension. Been taking it for 2 months now, during the evening I start feeling very tired and fatigued, I don't have the energy I had before. It's doing its job to control my blood pressure but I don't think I can keep using this drug much longer.

Hi, I have been on amlodopine and ramapril since 2009 (i think!) when i first started taking it I felt incredibly drowsy and had to stay in bed for a few hours. I had no energy and could hardly open my eyes and felt really groggy. When I eventually got up and did some work I was exhausted by 3pm and wanted to sleep again. Can't remember how long this lasted but now I wake up, take my tablets and I am fine. I do find I get tired in the afternoon though still. I am a gardener so it could also be a combination of fresh air and getting older. I am 42.

My side effects from the drugs, not sure whether its the amlodopine or the ramapril doing which effect but I get very swollen ankles and feet and hands. It used to be so bad when I first started taking the drugs that I had to sit with my feet up for 20 mins after an hour of being on them. My legs would go very red, to the point that someone said have you been sunbathing! My taste perception has definately changed. sometimes I can taste ginger, minted peas, smell of rubber tyres, all sorts of odd things that no one else can taste. Something else I have noticed and just read on another site is that now and then I can smell/ taste cigarette smoke. I do live near a pub and wondered if it was just wafting by in a cloud past my door. Anyone else experienced this?

My worst side effects ( I pressume) that are getting worse now is awful heartburn, I was eating tonnes of rennies and drinking gaviscon. Saw a doctor this year and she immediately said oh thats caused by the tablets have some of these.. omeprazole which are brilliant. The other major problem is excruciating cramp. I have worked outdoors for over 20 years, forestry, landscaping and gardening so I am used to physical work, aches and pains and getting stiff but I have never ever had cramp like this . I cant find any tablets yet that help so I drink a bottle of bitter lemon a day to take the quinnine which does seem to help. I think the less I drink the worse the cramp. Sometimes I am almost in tears with the pain and panic because it feels like the muscle is getting tighter and tighter and wont stop. I asked the last dr I saw ( different one every time!) about it and he said he would want another full appointment to assess things. On the info of drugs it says it is a side effect, muscle cramps.He said he had not heard of it being connected with either of the drugs I am on ! Anyone else get bad cramp ?

The only good thing I have found with these drugs apart from my BP being good is that I do not get migraines anymore which is brilliant.The last year or so I have got achillies tendanitus, not sure if that is just heavy new work boots and lots of walking in my job that have caused it or partly due to the swollen ankles and feet. That can be agony so take ibuprofen on top of everything else !!.

Have any of you with these horrible side effects asked the pharmacist to give you a pack from a different manufacturer?

Because my BP has become far too high, yet my lifestyle (active and healthy) has not changed, I seriously suspect that side effects I have suffered (palpitations, anxiety attacs) are the fault of the manufacturer and not the actual amlodipine itself.

I rang one of the companies and asked the medical advisor if this theory was possible and the answer was yes. The basic ingredients (active) ingredients are all the same but the "non active" ingredients vary from one manufacturer to another and it is possible that people can react differently to these non active ingredients.

So armed with this info, today I am taking amlodipine from a different manufacturer (UK based) and see if I notice any difference. I could well be wasting my time, but I feel it's worth a try.

I get the smoke smell too, actually I just had it 30 minutes ago, it's very strong and makes me dizzy, my heart start beating fast too.

I have been in a similar situation and although I rarely contribute my experiences to any online forum I

thought this was an exception. I am a patient and this is my experience with Amlodipine.

I am a generally healthy person and had not taken any medication except Flonase for my nasal allergies. For some reason my blood pressure was kreeping up and when one day it got to 200/140 I thought I had better go to the doctor. That was my first mistake. I should have looked at my diet instead. Anyway the doctor said I needed to on on medication and advised amlodipine and did mention some get a swelling of ankles. I told him about Flonase and he said it was ok. He prescribed me 5 MG per a day. After about a week I became dizzy all day and my ankles began swelling and the blood pressure was not going down. I called my doctor and he said it was normal the first week and to carry on. At the end of week 2 I felt a little bit better, but swelling continued. I carried on with 5 MG for about a month. My blood pressure was not coming down so I called the doctor again and he told me to double up and take 10 MG and he called in a new prescription. I took 10 MG a day for a week. My ankles swelled so bad i could not walk and my hands started swelling, then my skin became very sensitive to touch and I became very tired. After 2 days of not being able to reach my doctor I decided to stop amlodipine. The doctor finally called and told me to stop right away and that it was ok to suddenly stop taking amlodipine.

The swelling was so bad I could not walk after a few days of stopping. Then to make things worse and I put it down to the swelling, I tripped down the brick steps and seriously damaged my back that in turn started swelling like my legs and hands.

It has now been 4 days since I stopped taking amlodipine and I am still swollen, I cannot move because of my back injury and my skin is very sensitive to touch. I have broken out in a bad rash on my butt and I feel terrible. I have stopped taking Flonase too and am hoping to be normal again in a week or so.

I should have armed myself with information before going to the doctors. I am now changing my diet to include less salt and more potassium and am not planning on taking anything else. My advice to anyone is: DO NOT TAKE AMLODIPINE

If ever there is a lawsuit count me in-

Thanks for listening- Jerry

DON'T TAKE IT

An update on my stopping amlodipine situation, 1 day later: severe rash started on buttocks and is not slowing up gradually working its way down the back of my legs. Red raised painful lumps. impossible to sit down. Almost went to emergency last night, but decided to take a benedryl instead and all it did was put me to sleep. Having googled this I am sure it is caused by amlodiprine and apparently I am in the less than 1%. If I cannot reach doctor today I expect I will have to go to emergency.. Has anyone else had this reaction and what did you take to get rid of the rash?

I have been off that nasty drug for a few months now,,, my legs now have visible kneecaps and ankles, I no longer sleep my days away, I am back walking and swimming my weight has dropped and I feel kind of back to normal, Lecalpin is my new drug,, my blood pressure is a lot lower but mostly due to the fact I stopped smoking and watch what I eat and of course my exercise,,,

I went to the doctors today regarding this terrible rash and the result is interesting so I thought I had better post it. OK so I have shingles. The doctor thinks my immune system got run down due to amlodipine and that shingles crept in. I was not planning on taking any more meds, but now I am on other nasty meds for the shingles. I still attribute this situation to amlodripine... Shingles are no fun i am beginning to find out- pain is setting in.

Hi, Well I have been on Amlodopine now for 6 months and apart from the first couple of weeks with headaches and stomach upset I have had no problems my Blood Pressure is now down to a normal level and I feel absolutly fine in fact never better

Hi, Well I have been on Amlodopine now for 6 months and apart from the first couple of weeks with headaches and stomach upset I have had no problems my Blood Pressure is now down to a normal level and I feel absolutly fine in fact never better

Is there a list of things one can take for High Blood Pressure of a natural nature?

Just one natural thing may not do the trick. maybe a variety will.

I had to quit my BP med that relaxed by blood vessels because of severe nose bleeds.

I am going to quit this one too because of what has been mentioned here.

Hi Nigel,

Yes, these symptoms have been reported before and I've seen them in a few patients myself from Norvasc or Amlodipine, which is a calcium channel blocker that lowers BP by basically relaxing the vascular muscle of your blood vessels and to a lesser extent the heart.

Your doc is definitely right to want to lower your BP to prevent heart attacks, strokes etc if it's too high, but the good news is that if the one medication is not holding you, there are non drug methods that your doctor or an integrative medicine doctor in your area can try to decrease your bp without having to add a second pill. For example, mindfulness meditation, yogic breathing (takes 5 minutes to learn, daily exercise and weight loss have all been proven in multiple studies to lower bp as well as drugs, if done properly under the guidance of an expert in this area of medicine Stress plays a huge role in high bp, so a daily relaxation practice, listening to a relaxation or clinical hypnotherapy recording can have a huge effect on overall bp.