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Same medications for 17 years. What new medications have people found to be good?

Posted , 5 users are following.

Cheetah
Cheetah

For the past 17 years I have been on 2.5mg Bendroflumethiazide and Tildiem LA 200 (Sanofi) daily for high blood pressure.   I've recently had an attack of palpitations which went on for four hours - very frightening.  I had an ECG, which was fine, but the 24 hour blood pressure monitoring showed that my blood pressure was higher than it should be.  I will be seeing the GP again tomorrow.

After being so long on the same medication, I just wondered about people's experiences of newer medications.

0 likes, 6 replies

6 Replies

  • jx41870
    jx41870 Cheetah

    Posted

    Seventeen years, and this is the first problem - congratulations!  The newest category of drugs, just a little newer than your prescriptions, would be the ACE inhibitors, which while not all free of side-effects are perhaps still the best available.  I was on a diuretic like your Bendro plus a combination calcium-channel blocker like your Tildiem and an ACE inhibitor (ARB), but finally figured out that the calcium-channel blocker had been causing me arrhythmias for a long time.  I discontinued the calcium-channel blocker, changed to a simpler diuretic - and it worked much better, with fewer problems.  Still taking a smaller dose of the ARB.  Hope that helps.
  • Dave94501
    Dave94501 Cheetah

    Posted

    In addition to the above mentioned use of ACE / ARB, I think one of the most impotent developments of the last couple decades is advancements in the use of combination drug therapy. Old school thinking was that with each additional medication the risk of side affects is increased. Therefore individual drugs should be used at maximum dosage before introducing an additional drug. Modern thinking recognizes the synergy between certain medications and how in a good drug combination the drugs can be used at a much lower dosage and one drug can help mitigate the adverse side effects of the other.

    In your case since your blood pressure is not adequately controlled with a diuretic plus a CCB, your doctor may choose to add an ACE or ARB since ACE and ARB have a good synergy with both CCB and diuretic. A small amount of ACE / ARB added to your existing medications can have a very large effect, so you may need to be careful your BP does not drop too low. After your doctor figures out what dosage and combo works good for you, you may be able to get that in a combination tablet.

    • jx41870
      jx41870 Dave94501

      Posted

      As Dave says, certainly the combination therapy is much believed in and used.  I will say though that in my own case, I've never seen any danger from the drugs causing my BP to go too low!  The ARB's in particular do not even increase in effectiveness with dose, or at least my Olmesartan does not, according to both the insert and my experience.

      OTOH I have my list of effective foods that have immediate BP-lowering effects, and on occasion those have at least managed to get my BP briefly below 120/80, where it seldom goes otherwise.

  • david_41738
    david_41738 Cheetah

    Posted

    Hi , 

    Well I’ve been on RAMIPRIL for nearly 2 months now and when on 2.5 was ok but BP wasn’t getting any better so the doc put it up to 5.0 well this was a nightmare as daily ANXIETY and CRAMPS on and off now back on 2.5 everything seems to be hitting my target plus the ANXIETY and CRAMPS seem to be settling and BP getting to its proper target 

    Hope this helps

    David 

  • Cheetah
    Cheetah

    Posted

    Thank you very much for your replies, which I found very interesting and helpful, particularly that the calcium-channel blocker had caused your arrhythmia, jx41870 and also learning about combination drug therapy, Dave.   My GP decided to put my Tildiem up by 60mg and I'm taking this extra dosage at night.  I've to take this for two months and then have another 24 hour bp monitor and, at the moment, I'm feeling fine.   I took my blood pressure after a week of this extra dose and it was lower than it had been previously, but not too low!  However, I will definitely discuss things fully if it is still higher than it should be after the next 24 hour check and ask about combination drugs.  Thankfully, I've not had any more palpitations since, but, If I do, then I'm to go back and he'll look into this further.  I hope that the dosage of Ramipril you're on, David, continues to work well for you.

    Thanks again. 

  • rsarrett
    rsarrett Cheetah

    Posted

    My mother-in-law lives in Washington state in the US. Cannabis has been legal here for use for about 3 years.

    She has been trying CBD for her hypertension and pain relief for 6 weeks now. She says it has worked really well so far. http://cbdhypertension.com/treating-hypertension-cbd-oil-facts/  discusses a double-blind study with CBD helping manage peoples blood pressure and lower stress. It's pretty cool.

    CBD is simply a medicine with no 'high' involved, like marijuana is usually associated with. It's effective for pain relief and many other serious conditions. You may have heard how it is helping with epilepsy. 

    If you're living in an area where it is legally available, that is now an option for helping with hypertension.

    Take care!

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