Losartin Potassium

Losartan was about my 6th different BP pill to try after experiencing very unwanted side effects from all the previous ones.  My consultant wants me on three different BP pills but we've only managed to get as far as trialling two and I couldn't cope with the side effects.  So it's just Losartan Potassium 50mg at the moment - no noticeable side effects (the pharmacist said it was the one with the least side effects reported by all his customers) but it isn't completely controlling my blood pressure either.  So have just started GP referral sessions at a local gym in a last ditch effort to try to reduce my blood pressure through exercise.  Hopefully your blood pressure doesn't spike as high as mine and you will find the Losartan sufficient.

Think of the good it will do not any possble annoyance. Remember people without side effects do not post here:-)  

What dose of Losartan are you taking?  As you've only been taking it for 5 days, it is probably a low starting dose.  Often we are started on a low dose and then at our next appointment the dose is increased.

Have you tried taking your blood pressure three times in succession with about 2 minutes between each reading and relaxing in between?  This is what my consultant has asked me to do, and then record for him the average of the last two readings - successive readings can tend to reduce, although I have been known to be the exception to the rule!

I have stopped taking my blood pressure too often as I was finding that the more I took it the more obsessive I was becoming, possibly leding to higher readings.

I have taken 100mg in the morning or at night or split the dose between morning and night without it making much difference. That has been the case since 2001. For the the first eleven years I was taking verapamil as well and from time to tme Losartan was swirched to another drug.

Like Mrs O I keep a record of my readings . 

                 Thanks

Some reports say that it is the average that counts others say that the peaks are dangerous. Recently I have had two appointments at a hyperstension referal centre and this is what I qouted from in an other conversation from his letter to my GP.

“ His blood pressure at the clinic today was 187/82. He has very labile hypertension but I wonder the reality if it is his blood pressure tends to be low but very reactive rather than predominately high certainly he seems to have had side effects on a number of antihypertensives raising the question as to whether he was in fact being over treated. To avoid complicating things we are leaving his medication as it is although if he gets symptomatic hypertension it would probably be worth reducing his losartan (from 100mg to 50mg) 

We will arrange the MR scan and I look forward to hearing the results of his 24 hour ambulatory monitor. 

Going into his past in a little more detail it sounds as if he hasn’t had a lot in the way of investigations for his hypertension and I am going to arrange an MR scan to address his aneurysm but more importantly whether his renal arteries are involved in it (which might not be apparent from the surveillance ultrasounds he gets) and also to clarify a little more about his liver cysts and in particular the extent to which his kidneys may be involved” 

MR scan was today but next appointment at the clinc is not until mid January.

Problem is getting to see an expert as Hypertension Referral Centres are thin on the ground.

The problem

Derek, your consultant's point about your side effects from numerous BP medications raising the question as to whether you were being overtreated is interesting if a little odd.  I always thought that my side effects were purely because I was just sensitive to the drugs.  Interesting.

He said over treated in his letter but at the consultation he also said if it is low but tends to be reactive I may be reacting to drugs because I don't really need them. 

The MR scanner was an old one and just as well I'm not claustrophobic. The newer ones are evidently a bit roomier. It only took fifteen minutes but I would not want to be in there for a full body scan.

my doctor did not mention it.

My aunt will love the hug and I know she'd want me to return it to you, even though it's only a virtual one.

It will be interesting to hear more from your future visits to the hypertension centre - sounds like we need a few more of those around reading the consultant's view on cardiologists treating hypertension.

The kidney one I had then had a doctor present in case I had a reaction to the dye they used. I had told them of a reaction to a dye used in an X-Ray thirty years ago and they said it was a now a diiferent dye. Yesterday the said that the two dyes used are different from the one used for CT scans.    

The machine is so loud that my wife could hear in the waiting room. Next step is another 24 hour BP monitor but it will be a long time before I have anything to report back on with the next appointment not until January.

She has been stop start with meds all of that time. It has been sky high due to stress for the past few years due to her husbands worsening dementia.

She is even more stressed now as she is on her own since he went into a 'Care Home' last month where he is not being well looked after for her £1200 a month, is unhappy and has had a bad fall.

So I would say to all those who've got hypertension, don't let it become an issue, follow your doctor's advice and just get on with life....

I'll be patient to hear your future news - January isn't that far away.

Carry on enjoying your can of beer!

Thank you for your good wishes which I return threefold.

It was bad enough getting there yesterday with traffic congestion in Brighton.

If you don't think of it and have no side effects why are you reading this site? I always ask probing  questions:-)

I took that as sign of defeatism and switched to one of the other doctors in the practice:-)

GM, I',m Elsa.. With all Meds I find their are some side effects.... I have been put on many types of HBP Meds I find thar Losartan has been the only Med that has helped I went from 50mg to now 100mg give it some time see how you do ...I find that its always hard to  take and try new Meds... give ur self some time.