Losartan Potassium and swollen ankles
Posted , 8 users are following.
Hello to everyone in this group. My husband is taking Losartan Potassium 50mg, 1 pill daily. He has been taking this BP medication for nearly two years and replaces the Linsinopril 10mg that he was taking.
The Lisinopril gave him a terrible cough which drove me absolutely mad and although he was not bothered by it, he agreed to change his medication. Initially, the cough did subside a bit, but never went away and just recently, his coughing is back to what it was when he was taking Lisinopril. The cough is not productive and he has to cough really hard and loud (which hurts my ears if he is sitting next to me) to clear what he regards as congestion which he can't budge. He is often wallking round the house at night coughing to clear what he thinks is a blockage of some kind. This is doing both of us no good as we have a lot of interrupted sleep. I downloaded the sleeptalk app to see how many times he was coughing through the night. There were no less than 40 recordings in one night! The cough is persistent during the day as well.
He has also developed swollen ankles. His doctor has said that it is to do with the valves in his veins not working properly, but I am not convinced. I think it could be to do with his BP medication. Has anyone else had this side effect? I looked up the side effects on the leaflet that comes with the medication and on the rare side effects is swollen ankles.
I look forward to hearing your comments.
Marie
1 like, 40 replies
susan44858 marie86421
Posted
owen90358 marie86421
Posted
mike92384 owen90358
Posted
owen90358...ACE inhibitors such as Lisinopril do cause a dry cough. Anything ending in "il" is an ACE. You were switched to an ARB such as Losartan. It can take a while for the ACE cough to go away. Acid reflux can cause a cough as well. It's the debris from the reflux that gets into the airways. Monitor your reflux. It's not good to be on Omeprazole or any other acid control for a long period of time.
owen90358 mike92384
Posted
Thanks for your comment.I also have Barrett's esophagus so I have to take omeprazole twice a day to stop stomach acid getting into my esophagus.
Laroxe marie86421
Posted
I'm amazed at the sort of things people tolerate when taking BP meds. The idea is that they should reduce your risk of becoming ill rather than effectively disable you. I'm also amazed at the attitude of some Drs towards this.
The easiest way to see if a particular medication is causing problems is to change it, even drugs in the same group can have a different side effect profile, so there is plenty of choices. With coughs, swollen ankles and with stomach irritation the first suspect should be the drugs and its easier and cheaper to try something else rather than start a whole series of investigations.
Perhaps starting a discussion with your Dr with the statement that your not prepared to carry on taking the drugs he's prescribed because of the side effects and sticking to that might prompt him to offer alternatives. A very common strategy now is to prescribe several drugs at much lower dosages, there are even mixed pills available. Remember that some side effects develop over quite long periods and can take a long time to resolve even without the drug being taken.
mike92384 Laroxe
Posted
Laroxe...I agree totally with what you've written. Drs are far too quick in prescribing medications instead of taking a 'wait & see approach'. Some will make a patient suffer through side effects for a month because they think it takes a month for the meds to take effect. What nonsense. I fail to understand why anyone has to tolerate being ill because of a medication. I would say that in 2 weeks or a little more, one would have a good idea as to whether or not this med will agree with them. Yes, starting a discussion with the Dr. about how one feels should definitely 'be in the cards'. WE are their employers, not the other way 'round.
You're right about another thing. It seems a common strategy to prescribe several drugs at lower dosages. Again, I fail to see the logic in this practice. A lot of people have success with just ONE med. There's always the risk of the bp going UP when a med is removed because the body has become accustomed to taking multiple medications. Luckily for me I have a Dr. with whom I can speak freely, & I'm very comfortable with him. More of us need to speak up.
mgunnell marie86421
Posted
marie86421,
I had a similar experience. I was taking 5mg of Lisinopril, not for BP, but to protect my kidneys because I am a diabetic. My doctor told me that he thought the Lisinopril was causing a chronic cough and he changed me to Losartan. I immediately began to collect fluid in my extremities and I had dyspnea so bad that I couldn't walk 1000 ft without sitting down. When I called my doctor to suggest that the Losartan might be causing my symptoms, he changed me to Valsartan and told me that Losartan is suppose to help people with congestive heart failure symptoms an he doubted that was my problem. Instead of taking the Valsartan, I started myself back on Lisinopril. My symptoms went away and I told my doctor that I would rather have a cough, than to be disabled by Losartan. They told me I had an unusual adverse affect, but I wondered if it was happening more than they would like to admit.
marie86421 mgunnell
Posted
Hello mgunnell
I think the doctors are only interested in prescribing drug after drug instead of getting to the core of the problem. If they sorted the problem out we would not need the medication.
My husband has been given some medication to take for nasal polyps and we asked at the time whether this would make him cough. As I asked the question I was given the most arrogant look and response from the consultant and told me categorically 'no'. But guess what? After two weeks he was coughing so hard I thought he was going to have a heart attack or burst a blood vessel. We contacted the hospital and got a message to the consultant but all they said was that the medication does not cause coughing, go and see your doctor. Funny that after he stopped taking it the cough disappeared. They lie full stop and don't really care.
I hope you manage to continue with Lisinopril without too much coughing.
mike92384 marie86421
Posted
marie86421...Lisinopril is an ACE Inhibitor & one of the most common side effects is a hard dry cough.
Any bp medicine ending in "il" is an ACE Inhibitor....Here are some examples...Lisinopril., Perindopril,.
Approximately 1 in 4 people suffer the cough. A Dr. will prescribe an alternative..usually an ARB such as Losartan, Valsartan (not recently because of the contamination scare), Irbestartan.
If your husband is suffering a nasty cough & he's on Lisinopril, it's likey the Lisinopril that's causing it.