One Week On From Last Amlopidine

annette,

Welcome,

Glad your feeling better. I know exactly what you have been through myself. Its important, as Im sure you know, to keep an eye on your bp as it will rise again. Your gp should be able to sort you another med when you go back. Due to my adverse reactions to high bp drugs I am now on my third attempt to find a med that , to coin a phrase, I can live with,but I will have to wait till my next appointment . Keep us posters informed of your progress, also, Im sure others here can offer you support and advce, regards, .

"That tablet seemed to go to all the joints I was having trouble with...."

Now that you put it into words, I can see in my own case that it made the most troublesome spots in my body worse (except for its definite lowering of my hypertension). I have posted elsewhere on this board most of the negative effects that amlodipine had on my body. One which worsened in the days after I had weaned down to 2.5 mg, 1.25mg, and then quit, was swollen inner/middle ears (which I tend to have during this time of year due to seasonal allergies), but this was more extreme than ever; it made my head feel pressurized, and as if I had it inside an empty goldfish bowl - I could hear my own voice in my head, but things and people around me sounded muffled - except certain types of sounds (such as bass notes in music) became painful and unpleasant. Very disturbing. This swelling of the internal ears was followed by maddening tinnitus which started in both ears, then only to my right ear and became even worse with new and increased noises - and more worrisome. There was a piercing, high-pitched noise inside my head in a silent room plus the sound of a roaring waterfall. Only today, more than a week later, has it seemed to start improving - my internal ears finally feel open again and the tinnitus is minimal. What a relief! I was afraid it had caused permanent damage. Never again.

As I stated in another post, amlodipine, if used at all, should be for a very short term to bring down dangerously high blood pressure, which it definitely does. But negative and possibly dangerous side effects gradually develop as one continues to take it, and some linger on after one has stopped. I do believe people should probably taper off of it to avoid rebound high blood pressure; e.g., 5mg for a couple of days, 2.5mg for two or three days, 1.25 (if you can manage that by biting off an edge of the tablet) for another couple of days, and then no more. Hopefully, another hypertension med is being substituted before this tapering time is finished. There are dozens of ACE inhibitors and quite a few ARB blood pressure meds that have far less serious side effects, though their blood pressure lowering is less dramatic than that of amlodipine, and some ARBs such as losartan (Cozaar) can take a week or more to reach full effectiveness.

I had no significant side effects with several years of Cozaar/losartan (ARB), but it gradually became less and less effective (as BP meds can do) and was switched to benazepril (ACE inhibitor), which I take only in the morning, as it seems to cause achiness, restless legs, unrestful sleep if taken near bedtime.

I hope that is of some help to you.

Hi Annette I too am 1 week off the dreaded Amlopidine and feeling so much better already, did not come off them slowly I just stopped taking them and so far so good, most of my aches and pains have gone as have the shakiness and forgetfulness, I now feel almost normal again and I my BP is ok as I monitor it daily even though I have been under immense stress (mother in law in hospital) so working full-time and then having to rush up the hospital every evening but you know what I feel ok whereas before I would not have had the energy to do that.

Anyway so pleased you are doing well and hope the pain in your knee improves, mine was in my right knee but that seems to have subsided too.  I am so happy I found this forum and stopped them before they did permanent damage.

I will make an appointment with the doctor once I know that my BP is ok and I can prove to him that they are not needed.