Reduced dose

Thankyou for your reply Tina. I was on 2.5mg and reduce to 1.25mg 2 days ago as instructed by my doctor. Haven't really noticed a change In bp as I do monitor it. I reduced due to headaches, muscle cramps and a few others.

To be honest with you I don't think theee tablets did anything to reduce my blood pressure, it was more to do with my lifestyle change. I was put on 1.25 to start with, then it was increased to 2.5 and again to 5mg when my BP continued to rise they suggested increasing it to 10 which I declined. Against my doctors advice I insisted they reduce the dose as I too had side effects from this drug.

My blood pressure only dropped once I took up walking and yoga .

I hope the side effects disappear now you have reduced the dose. Good luck with bringing your BP down I hope you find a way without taking these nasty drugs !!

tino56...I'm glad yo're feeling ok. I do believe the spike you were experiencing was from worrying. Worry can & does make bp spike.

However, I don't think it's a good idea that you are the one reducing your medication. Yes, your bp may be falling, but there may be a reason for that. 2.5mg isn't a lot & if your bp is being controlled with that amount, my advice to you would be to leave it alone. BP can be a deadly thing, so don't play around with it. Consult your Dr. about your dosage.

Hi sharon53787..I support what your doing by consulting with your doctor. Nobody should take it upon themselves to be reducing their bp medication. This can turn into a deadly game of Russian Roulette. If the headaches, muscle cramps etc continue, your Doctor will do something about it, probably by changing your meds. Rampiril is an ACE inhibitor..there are ARB's out there too, i.e. Valsartan, Avapro..just to name a few. I don't recommend Norvasc (Amlodipine). If you read about Amlodipine on this forum, you'll learn a lot, believe me. While everyone is different, there are complaints too numerous to list about that drug.

My problem is if I had listened to my Doctors advice I would now be on 10mg oh the drug instead of the 2.5mg that I insisted I should reduce it to as the medication was not reducing it. The point I was making was the fact that my BP was increasing in spite of the ramipril .

Mike, I would have agreed with your comment about consulting your doctor first but for the fact that having consulted him concerned about my increasing BP with the doubling of my dosage their solution was to recommend a further increase.

Tha other point I was making is there are other ways to reduce it without taking these drugs. Furthermore if you are admitted to hospital for an operational procedure they will stop your medication before proceeding so I would suggest there is a certain amount of scaremongering with regards to coming off these drugs that I don't feel is warranted. I am prove as I have been on the lower dosage for over a year now without I'll effect and feeling a whole lot better with a lower blood pressure than when I was on the prescribed 5mg !

tino56..what scares me is that you may not have been properly educated about how this works!!! Doubling the bp medication dosage CAN increase unwanted side effects. At times it works out. While I agree there are other ways of reducing bp without drugs, ie.exercise & diet, this does not work for everyone. 

While it's true many doctors will ask a patient to stop medications just before surgery, many do not especially here in Canada because the importance of taking one's bp medication is paramount, unless there's a chance the bp medications would conflict with whatever they may give you during preparation for the surgery. 

A lot of times, when coming off medications, the bp will rebound. Tread carefully my friend..any concerns at all should be addressed with your doctor.

sharon53787..I hope you continue to feel better. While you don't care for the Rampiril, you COULD ask your doctor for Perindopril..or Coversyl, not Coversyl Plus. The "Plus" means it contains a diuretic. According to my Dr., coversyl is a GOOD drug.