I know its was amlodipine!

I am 61 and have been diagnosed with high BP after having severe stress coping with my elderly mother. I am on my third packet of tablets and expierencing some strange side effects, I have very poor sleep my eyes are red and itchy, i have a dripping nose and bouts of intestinal discomfort. My BP is now normal but i have had two bouts of severe watery stools. The first time i thought it was something i had eaten but after a repeat last week, i now think it is this drug.

I also feel lethargic like everyone else. If i carry on this way i shall have to ask for an alternative.This site is a big help.

I am so glad I found this forum. I am sitting here now, with a new unopened packet of amlodipine 5mg. I have constantly refused to take any high blood pressure tablets, but recently having some form of 'heart' problem (been told angina by the consultant) I had decided to give in.

However, yesterday picking them up and talking to the pharmacist, I asked him if there was another alternative to medication... he told me... to relax and do breathing excercises for at least 10 mins a day...and there is a machine that can help.

Well thats it... I am going to put this packet straight in the bin, stay away from the statin also and get a machine that helps with relaxing.. and find alternatives to lowering to blood pressure and cholestral (excercise and diet change)... I may take the 1/4 of anadin recommended by the consultant, but thats it.

Thanks for this... and thank god I read this forum first...

What a wonderful thing the Internet is, that it enables so many of us, who would otherwise never have met or had a chance to share our experiences, to help one another!

It was this webs that gave my 88 year old mother the courage to give up her BP meds and try a non invasive alternative. She has had three weeks now of cutting her medication down, and is getting better all the time.

I am o grateful to everyone who has shared their thoughts here, and I do urge anyone encouraged yo rely on meds to look carefully at the alternatives.

Hi Mrs O - yes would like to know how things turn out. Hi Alison. Well doc prescribed 2. 5mg for my mom as I thought he would. She actually hasn't taken it because we lost the script. LOL He said he doesn't expect such a low dosage will change anything, but I read it IS the way to do it for the elderly - start them on 2.5. My mother has a history of bradycardia too, so I am hopeful that it will not slow the heartbeat.

Someone on here mentioned the stress of dealing with an elderly parent. My father has advanced dementia - he is going to be 85 soon and it's been this way for about 5 years. I lost my job, blew threw my 401k and - well - things are pretty bad here. I own my own home and moved my parents in to be with me years ago. My father has put my mother and I on the brink of insanity. My brother and sister never visit, and to make matters worse, my sister is Baby Jane. We believe her to be bi-polar with a myriad of other problems and she sends abusive letters now and then. Really wacky stuff that doesn't make sense. One time we believe she was actually stalking our house.

Our dog has been diagnosed with a possible malignant tumor and needs surgery. God I never realized how bad this all was until I started typing it. Bottom line - I just don't see mom's BP coming down without meds. I'm depressed most of the time myself. My BP is low and I have Lyme Disease. I have no health insurance. Holy cow my life sounds horrible, maybe I'd better stop talking! LOL

My mother herself is actually fairly confident that without all these problems, her BP WOULD be under control.

Hello Susan and Alison

Gosh what a lot of stress you are going through, Susan. We're always told to avoid stress for the sake of our health but unfortunately some stresses are just impossible to avoid aren't they. But you and Alison are doing a wonderful job looking out for your mothers and you should feel very proud of yourselves. I'm sure your mothers really appreciate you, too.

Well after 2 months, I've been taken off the tiny 2.5 dose of Amlodipine - I couldn't believe that such a tiny children's dose would have any side effects at all but I managed to get very swollen and inflamed ankles and a rash about 4 inches up my legs which, after 12 days without Amlodipine is still refusing to shift and my GP is saying it may be varicose eczema, possibly caused by the medication. The kidney consultant prescribed another medication called Adezem-ZL (another calcium channel blocker) but I'm holding off taking it until my ankles recover from their stiffness etc, fearing that if they have the same effect I will not know what is what.

I sought a second opinion of a rheumatologist I was under for several years and who I have great faith in. It might interest both of you to hear that he recommended a couple of alternative medications if this one caused me problems, adding that if I chose to do nothing at all then I could simply take an aspirin to try and offset the risk of heart attack and stroke from the high blood pressure but of course that wouldn't help to protect my kidney function. I just wondered whether the aspirin might be suitable for your mothers, providing of course that they haven't had a problem with taking aspirin in the past (I'm thinking of gastric bleeds).

All the best to you both and your Mothers.

G58

I would be very interested to hear about the machine you mention - is it called Resperate? I have seen it advertised but it is very expensive and I don't know anyone who has tried it to find out whether it is successful at lowering blood pressure.

Anne 335

I have purchased a resperate machine which is rather expensive, also my own bp home machine and i am now going to try this method before i start to come off any drugs, just to be on the safe side. Will keep everyone posted.

Hi Mrs O, not sure the name of them, but they are half price at LLoyds pharmacies at present... though, not sure if this will be all over the country. It was the pharmacist who informed me about it and told me that many people who had used this machine successfully were able to stop their medication... anyway, its got to be a better alternative to this horrid medication... by the way, there are also many foods that lower blood pressure too.. potassium foods and oily fish too... I am going to try all I can as long as it doesn't involve this medication. Take care

Hello G58

Thank you for posting more details about the machine - I will pop into my local Lloyds pharmacy and check it out with them.

As far as appropriate foods are concerned, I think I've tried them all over lengthy periods! I have fresh garlic each day, and for the potassium eat a few bananas a week and plenty of celery, also oily fish a few times a week.

I purchased a good home BP monitor a couple of months ago and certainly, although not normal, my BP is so much lower at home than with the hospital consultant or GP - it soars when I am with them to unbelievable heights(200/90 odd), whilst at home over the last couple of days it's registered 149/69, 149/71 (both taken late at night) and 157/84 this morning - not sure whether our blood pressure is normally slightly higher in the mornings than later in the day. Anyway, I am going to arrange to take my machine into the practice nurse and check whether her machine and mine correspond - at least then I will know just how much the very high readings done by the medics are down to white coat syndrome.

I'm also trying desperately to lost weight - I'm not exactly overweight but just within the normal BMI for my height and weight, but I was once told by a kidney consultant that blood pressure decreases by about 10% with every stone lost.

Good luck with your efforts G58, and also to you Anne - I look forward to hearing how you both get on.

I was put on amlodipine after a cerebral hemorrhage in 2008 . My BP was only averaging 145/80 but they wanted to control it due to needing a cerebral angegram for diagnostic purposes which I had to wait nearly a year for. A stressful year but wasn't helped by the medication (5mg). I feel it took a year out of my life , I felt I was looking at the world through drunken eyes but functioning in every other way as a sober human being. I wish to make two points after reading peoples entries. First is I developed muscle pains abdomen and lower back . Urine and blood tests negative apart from inflammatory count was up . These pains faded over a couple of months then developed shoulder and neck problems left side ..... later diagnosed as PMR and been on steroids last 18 months ( another adventure). The second point is I bought a respirator from lloyds to try and control my BP. .....ditched the medication used the machine 3x 15 minutes a week 125/80. I still find when I check my BP before and after machine use it lowers it by 20/10 in that 15 minutes. BP been good last 4 years but when started reducing the steroids BP up to 165/95 doctor put me back on amlodipine after six weeks the old symptoms returning. Ditching the stuff can't feel as crap as this every day............stress = rising BP

Really makes you wonder, doesn't it, in the light of all the comments posted here, why the stuff is still being prescribed!

My mother has been off amlodipine for about three weeks now, and she is like a different person - the one I remember dimly from before she started taking it! She still has a few dodgy days, but in general is greatly improved.

I can thoroughly recommend two books which we have found very helpful: one by a Dr Richard Moore, the other by Robert Kowalski ( both on Amazon). I would be interested y know if anyone rise as read them.

Good luck to everyone!

Hello Bordeauxd

Your post has got my mind working overtime! The reason being that I came off steroids just a year ago after 6.5 years with PMR and its linked condition GCA. (Prior to diagnosis I had been on a beta blocker for 3 years. Just under 3 months ago I was prescribed a tiny children's dose of Amlodipine. Within 3 days I developed very swollen and inflamed ankles together with a rash on the back of my lower legs. My ankles gradually became more and more stiff and I have even started having intermittent upper thigh discomfort classic of PMR occasionally when walking. I decided to make an appointment with the rheumatologist whose care I was under during my years with PMR/GCA to voice my concern over whether this BP medication could cause a return of my PMR. Although he was quite reassuring, saying that this was unlikely, I remain unconvinced especially as I have now been off the Amlodipine for 3 weeks and my legs have still not returned to normal. He did suggest that I didn't commence the replacement BP drug until my legs were better - however, as the first side effect reported in the accompanying leaflet is swollen ankles (1 in 10) I am reluctant to start this drug too!

Incidentally, I run a local support group for sufferers of PMR/GCA and our guest speaker at our latest meeting last Tuesday was from the MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency). She talked about the Yellow Card scheme for reporting adverse reactions to medicines, and I intend to fill in one of these cards and send it off to the MHRA. The cards should be available at pharmacies for anyone wishing to report their side effects from this drug.

I do so sympathise with what you are going through with PMR, not to mention the dreaded steroids, and I hope you are managing to reduce successfully. I wish you well.

Hello again Alison!

So good to hear better news about your Mum. I haven't read the books you mention and would be interested to hear what they are about please?

Once again I am so glad that this forum exists, so that we can all help one another! I shall watch the PMR / amlodipine story unfolding with great interest, as my elderly uncle could well be in the same boat (he is also on amlodipine).

Hi again, Mrs O! I thought other people struggling with getting their BP down might find these two books really interesting and helpful, as I am doing. They are both American - it seems the most comprehensive research on BP is being done in the States.

Dr Moore's book is called The High Blood Pressure Solution, with a subtitle of A Scientifically Proven Program for Preventing Strokes and Heart Disease. Dr Moore was involved in groundbreaking research into the causes of high blood pressure. He emphasises that hypertension is a symptom, not a disease in its own right. And how many people get the causes of their hypertension investigated? It is much more common for them just to be palmed off with medication, especially if they are elderly! His argument, backed up by immacul ate scientific explanations written for the layman to understand, is that hypertension is an indicator that all the cells of the body are imbalanced, not just those of the cardiovascular system. His cure for it is dietary: up your potassium intake in relation to your sodium intake, and you will get your cells balanced again, and your hypertension will go. He says that even if your BP readings remain the same, getting the potassium/sodium balance right will greatly reduce your chances of heart attacks and strokes -and isn't that what all hypertensive patients are trying to avoid? He gives plenty of detailed advice o show you how to implement his program, and fascinating insights into the politics of why you have not heard about this proven method from your GP.

The second book is called The Blood Pressure Cure, 8 Weeks to Lower Blood Pressure Without Prescription Drugs. The author is not a doctor but a medical journalist, inspired to research this because of his own high blood pressure. It is very humorous and approachable, and works well with Dr Moore's book because it gives a similar message and plenty of helpful advice.

I am using the two together to create a better diet for my mother and I, and for guidance in making lifestyle changes which will help in keeping her very high BP at a manageable level. Once I have got the diet right, I am going to research exercise for the elderly and arthritic: all the books tell you to do more, but if you are incapacitated it is very hard to do.

Already I have discovered that the foods you need to eat more of to up your potassium levels are the sorts of things you might eat anyway. As Dr Moore says, it is much more a question of how you prepare them. So it is not just 'the famous banana' as one of them says, but also baked potatoes, apples, oranges, dates, turkey breast and lean roast beef - in other words, nothing unusual. My mother is a fussy eater, but even she is enjoying the diet so far. Oh, and if diet makes you think of weight loss, well, we are going to tackle that further down the track, but just coming off the amlodipine has helped already!

I do hope other people will find these books helpful. Do share your experiences!

Hi Alison

Oh thanks for sharing all that information about diet and balancing of potassium/sodium levels and explaining it so well. I might ask for a potassium blood test but may have to delay it a while as I've only recently had a test for magnesium to check for any deficiency there which could be causing my frequent night cramps. GP was a little loathe to arrange magnesium test at first saying they weren't really available, but then mentioned that due to recent new dementure ruling (perhaps she's trying to tell me something there! ) she thought she could now arrange it. Results proved normal, so perhaps potassium could be the culprit, although I do eat plenty of bananas, celery and dates, plus loads of steamed veggies.

I think that apart from diet, exercise is one of the main factors in reducing blood pressure, and I am still trying to get myself into the habit of a daily early morning walk after reading of the successful experience of one member on this thread some time ago. I appreciate that exercise is difficult for your Mum though but at least it's good to hear that just coming off the Amlodipine is already giving her better days and hopefully now with the diet etc she will have many more better days around the corner.

Hi MrsO,

Yes, I agree with you about the exercise. I must say that it does surprise me that the books I have looked at so far which are so informative about the biochemistry of it all and which give so much detailed information about diet are not so good when it comes to advice about exercise. Having said that, Robert Kowalski's book does have some helpful things to suggest, but does not really address the problem which - if the news is to be believed! - must surely be a reality for many of the people who have high BP: how do you go about getting fit, when you are elderly and incapacitated and overweight? I suppose the obvious answer is that you try to tackle one thing at a time, otherwise you can get stressed (and therefore send your BP up again) just trying to cope with too much change in one go. So that is why we are concentrating on diet first . . .

I am not sure, from what I understand of Dr Moore's book, how helpful one blood test would be in checking your potassium level, as it is going to fluctuate daily, depending on what you are eating. Robert Kowalski has a whole chapter about balancing electrolytes, which of course deals with the big four: potassium, sodium, magnesium and calcium. The main thing seems to be, eat plenty of fruit and veg, and keep your fat and salt intakes down, and you shouldering the right thing!

Best of luck with it, and share how you get on!