Blood Pressure Medicine question

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rsingh6675

Recycles dryer sheets
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I am 63 yr old diabetic with mild high blood pressure (140/90). My doctor prescribed Losartan. It causes severe constipation! So the Doctor switched the medication to Accupril. This is causing severe dry cough!
Does anyone have this kind of weird side effects? My wife takes Accupril with no side effects.
Are there any other blood pressure medicines that I can try?
Any suggestions will be appreciated.
 
I suggest Losartan washed down with a large glass of...
 

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Very funny. It should wash out Losatan also before it is absorbed.
 
I had the cough when I first started Accupril (I now get the generic, quinapril which is very cheap). It faded away after a few weeks, maybe a month or two, I don't recall. It was annoying, like a nervous tick, but manageable for me.

But this does vary with each person.

-ERD50
 
Fosinopril caused the same cough you are talking about so after about a year I mentioned it to my doctor. He then switched me to Losartan. I haven't had that side effect from Losartan.

I'd say you should ask this question of your doctor, since he is aware that these side effects and needs to know that you are having them. He also would know of the next best medication in your particular case.
 
When all is said and done, no two people are alike in their physical response to different medications. My observation is that the better doctors recognize this and are willing to change recommendations to accommodate the side effects. This often takes a while. (from living in a retirement community where people are more than willing to share their experiences).
In my own case, a similar experience with years of Dr. insisting on Lipitor, which ended up causing severe muscle problems, which went away, after changing doctors and medication. Gotta make sure Doctor is listening.
Would suggest googling "drug interactions" for starters, and going to the better health sites for info on side effects. About 1/2 of the blood pressure medicines cause a cough, which often goes away in time.
Ooops... gotta be careful here... not a doctor... just a user. :)
 
Last edited:
W2R said:
I'd say you should ask this question of your doctor, since he is aware that these side effects and needs to know that you are having them. He also would know of the next best medication in your particular case.
Click to expand...

+1

I had the same problem earlier this year with Naproxen and my Doc recommended Miralax which worked great. She said that she liked Miralax because you can take it over a long time without irritating the bowel or becoming 'addicted' to it.
 
Part-time volunteer pharm tech here.
There are hundreds of bp meds out there, so little reason to put up with side effects. Insist that your doc help you find one that is effective and tolerable.
BTW, the usual approach is to try a simple diuretic first, eg HCTZ or furosemide. These rarely have significant side effects and with slightly high bp may be enough. If not then something else would supplement or replace it.
Also, IMHO, there is rarely a need for brand-name drugs; there's likely something in the generic arsenal that should do the trick.
 
Had a similar dry cough for a few months on a similar medication. It eventually went away and I am happy with it. On a previous medication, I was in a drugged state of stupor all day and unable to complete many mental tasks I should have had no problem with. Took a long time to figure that out, so I was pretty happy with just a cough and willing to stick with it long enough to get the new med to work.

Individuals vary. Beware if you get an unusual side effect, your doctor may not be aware that's even something to look for. You need to monitor yourself.
 
Both my sister and I had the cough.....

I looked up what medicine that was similar on my insurance website and took to the doc (the ones that were cheaper).... he looked at the list and said all of them were the same basic medicine....

I now take Losartan with no problems except taste as he only wants me to take half a pill since I do not have high blood pressure.... he said it is for my kidney....
 
imoldernu said:
When all is said and done, no two people are alike in their physical response to different medications.
Click to expand...

Keep in mind too that your response may be asymptomatic, which means that not having any symptoms may not necessarily be an all clear signal. When I first started my first BP meds, I insisted on being monitored by lab tests. The only reason I thought of this was that my doctor was at one time concerned with one of my liver function tests and stated that if I ever started taking the meds, he would want me monitored. As time passed, his concern apparently diminished and so when I finally did start taking the pills several yrs later, I was the one concerned and who brought up the subject. Fortunately he agreed to the monitoring.

Two wks after started taking the pills, I got a frantic call from him to immediately stop taking the pills. Apparently all of my liver enzyme tests had gone through the roof. Used up one of my nine lives there. That BP med is now in my medical records as something I am allergic to. No symptoms at all that I noticed....just picked up by the blood tests.

He switched to a different family of meds ARBII instead of the ACE inhibitor I had been taking. No problems there.
Now I will never switch/add a medication w/o coordinating it w/ my annual physical which includes the lab tests that would pick up similar problems.
 
I am prediabetic and my doctor prescribed Ramipril due to concerns about liver impact from diabetes. I have been taking it for a couple of years now with no side effects ... that I am aware of :).


Why is this medication prescribed?

Ramipril is used alone or in combination with other medications to treat high blood pressure. It is also used to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke in patients at risk for these problems and to improve survival in patients with heart failure after a heart attack. Ramipril is in a class of medications called angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors. It works by decreasing certain chemicals that tighten the blood vessels, so blood flows more smoothly and the heart can pump blood more efficiently.
 
Doc put me on Norvasc 5mg when my BP spiked a few months back due (we think) to some very stressful work related issues. No problems at all.

BP is back down to normal...in fact, maybe too low. My waking BP floats around 108/68, and my daytime at the office measures are in the 125/80 range. I'm hoping that after I retire in a few weeks time, that I will be able to lose a little more weight, reduce the BP med, and then get off of it altogether. (Don't try this without doctor's supervision...stroke can result from dropping the BP med suddenly).

R
 
rsingh6675 said:
I am 63 yr old diabetic with mild high blood pressure (140/90). My doctor prescribed Losartan. It causes severe constipation! So the Doctor switched the medication to Accupril. This is causing severe dry cough!
Does anyone have this kind of weird side effects? My wife takes Accupril with no side effects.
Are there any other blood pressure medicines that I can try?
Any suggestions will be appreciated.
Click to expand...
Most doctors have a dozen or so different BP medications. The fact that you've had two miserable results and have resorted to a discussion board for advice suggests that you might want to find a doctor who's actually willing to go through the medicine choices (and their potential effects) with you instead of just treating you like a lab rat.

The effects may change over time, too. Five years ago my father tried Lisinopril and had a miserable time. Two weeks later he switched to Fosinopril and was much happier. Yet when he ended up in the hospital for emergency surgery in early 2011, for some reason they put him back on Lisinopril. (At the time, the switch was the least of our concerns.) He's been on it for nearly two years with no apparent problems.

Rambler said:
BP is back down to normal...in fact, maybe too low. My waking BP floats around 108/68, and my daytime at the office measures are in the 125/80 range. I'm hoping that after I retire in a few weeks time, that I will be able to lose a little more weight, reduce the BP med, and then get off of it altogether. (Don't try this without doctor's supervision...stroke can result from dropping the BP med suddenly).
Click to expand...
When I ER'd I went from 140/80 (and vague medical threats of medication) to 110/65. If I work out strenuously 5-6x/week I can get even lower, but I'm not sure it's worth the effort.

My spouse regularly checks in at 95/65, and that's at the doctor's office. I'd love to have her on a 24-hour monitoring device because she'd probably be even lower.

She prefers to spend most of her time sitting or reclining, and if she hops up suddenly then she has major head rush and even vision grayout.

Between your upcoming lifestyle change and your free time to work on deliberate weight management, you'll be a two-digit midget with minimal effort.
 
I've been taking a low dose liscinipril for several years with no adverse affects. BP has been reasonably good, usually less than 120 and less than 80.
 
Benicar 20mg works for me. No problems, been taking it for a couple of years now. It's not yet one of those cheap $4 per month presecriptions, though. Costs me $30 per month.
 
I was on Ramipril for 2 months for systolic hypertension and developed this irritating dry cough which I ignored until I started becoming short of breath. I was aware that Ramipril (an ACE inhibitor) could cause a dry cough in about 3% of patients on it, but the shortness of breath was alarming and I went to a family physician and asked for the ACE inhibitor to be replaced by an ARB (Angiotension Receptor blocker).

I knew that this was the way the flow chart works - coughing on ACE inhibitor, change over to ARB.

It has been 3 weeks and my cough and more importantly, my shortness of breath, is gone.
 
On the generic version of Norvasc and no side effects. But everyone reacts differently, DW has a reaction to the generic version of lipitor (that Ranbaxy) but not the prescription.
 
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