Tick Tock
04-20-2005, 12:23 AM
I haven't been around this board for a while. Figured I needed to give the topic a mental rest for a while. Long story short - I am 46, male and found to have high BP about 2 years ago. It does run in my family, so I'm not surprised.
I am severely allergic to sulfa so my Dr. won't consider anything where that's an issue (e.g., HCTZ). Won't even consider an "in the Dr. office challenge/trial"... I do agree with that too. Last time I had a reaction, the Dr. called 911 while I was at the office.
Anyway, I'm now on 32 mg Atacand, 2.5 mg Norvasc, 25 mg atenolol, 4 mg Cardura, 300 mg CoQ-10...
My BP is now running 137/87 (average). High 183/109 and low of 102/60. Those are unusual though - normally, it's pretty close to the average.
So, what's next? I've tried cutting out all caffeine - no difference. I could stand to lose a few pounds, but am about 165 and 5' 9". I have been as low as 150 and BP was about the same. I am not big on salt.
Any other ideas / suggestions?
I am severely allergic to sulfa so my Dr. won't consider anything where that's an issue (e.g., HCTZ). Won't even consider an "in the Dr. office challenge/trial"... I do agree with that too. Last time I had a reaction, the Dr. called 911 while I was at the office.
Anyway, I'm now on 32 mg Atacand, 2.5 mg Norvasc, 25 mg atenolol, 4 mg Cardura, 300 mg CoQ-10...
My BP is now running 137/87 (average). High 183/109 and low of 102/60. Those are unusual though - normally, it's pretty close to the average.
So, what's next? I've tried cutting out all caffeine - no difference. I could stand to lose a few pounds, but am about 165 and 5' 9". I have been as low as 150 and BP was about the same. I am not big on salt.
Any other ideas / suggestions?
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Palamedes
04-20-2005, 12:42 AM
Anyway, I'm now on 32 mg Atacand, 2.5 mg Norvasc, 25 mg atenolol, 4 mg Cardura, 300 mg CoQ-10...
My BP is now running 137/87 (average). High 183/109 and low of 102/60. Those are unusual though - normally, it's pretty close to the average.
So, what's next? I've tried cutting out all caffeine - no difference. I could stand to lose a few pounds, but am about 165 and 5' 9". I have been as low as 150 and BP was about the same. I am not big on salt.
Any other ideas / suggestions?The only thing that really comes to mind is sodium consumption. On that cocktail of meds, you should respond very well to a low sodium diet. You say you are "not big on salt". Are you actively watching your sodium consumption? It can take up to a week on a low sodium diet before you will notice any results.
Pal
My BP is now running 137/87 (average). High 183/109 and low of 102/60. Those are unusual though - normally, it's pretty close to the average.
So, what's next? I've tried cutting out all caffeine - no difference. I could stand to lose a few pounds, but am about 165 and 5' 9". I have been as low as 150 and BP was about the same. I am not big on salt.
Any other ideas / suggestions?The only thing that really comes to mind is sodium consumption. On that cocktail of meds, you should respond very well to a low sodium diet. You say you are "not big on salt". Are you actively watching your sodium consumption? It can take up to a week on a low sodium diet before you will notice any results.
Pal
Lenin
04-20-2005, 09:10 AM
Tick Tock,
Explore the NON-thiazide diuretics that have no sulfa similarity...and REPLACE one or two of your meds with it. It's too easy for these doctors to KEEP ADDING...they learned addition in first grade and forgot to listen in SECOND grade when the focus was on SUTRACTION.:D
IF you are salt sensitive, then a good diuretic will get you better numbers than that 4-drug cocktail they have you on. Of course, you will have to don your armour and joust with Doctor Windmill to get him to backtrack on those drugs.
Lots of people have trouble with sufa drug antibiotics but no trouble with thiazides...but HE'S got the prescription pad.
Explore the NON-thiazide diuretics that have no sulfa similarity...and REPLACE one or two of your meds with it. It's too easy for these doctors to KEEP ADDING...they learned addition in first grade and forgot to listen in SECOND grade when the focus was on SUTRACTION.:D
IF you are salt sensitive, then a good diuretic will get you better numbers than that 4-drug cocktail they have you on. Of course, you will have to don your armour and joust with Doctor Windmill to get him to backtrack on those drugs.
Lots of people have trouble with sufa drug antibiotics but no trouble with thiazides...but HE'S got the prescription pad.
Tick Tock
04-20-2005, 10:45 AM
Thanks for the replies. It's been a while since I tracked my salt, but my diet hasn't really changed (if anything, less) since I did. I'm usually about 2,000 mg/day.
On the sulfa Lenin - that was my suggestion. The Drs. reasoning (we did discuss it) was that since my sulfa reaction has been more than once, increasing severity and the last one put me in the hospital for a couple days and was truly life threatening, that it's just not worth the risk. Probably would be ok, but the trade-off is not worth it.
Any non-sulfa diuretics that have worked well for others?
On the sulfa Lenin - that was my suggestion. The Drs. reasoning (we did discuss it) was that since my sulfa reaction has been more than once, increasing severity and the last one put me in the hospital for a couple days and was truly life threatening, that it's just not worth the risk. Probably would be ok, but the trade-off is not worth it.
Any non-sulfa diuretics that have worked well for others?
Tick Tock
04-20-2005, 10:20 PM
bump for zuzu - any thoughts / suggestions?
zuzu8
04-21-2005, 05:21 AM
Hey Tick Tock, kinda missed you!
Regarding the diuretic idea... If you are allergic to sulfa then the thiazides are out and so are the loop diuretics. However, potassium-sparing diuretics, like amiloride HCl (Midamor et al), spironolactone (Aldactone, and others), or triamterene (Dyrenium), may be a reasonable choices because these aren't associated with sulfa allergy or hypersensitivity.
With this in mind, definitely something to sit down and discuss again with your doctor and, as Lenin suggested, if doc agrees, discuss losing one or two of the others.
I was about to say lose "the least effective" of the others but by now you probably have no idea which drug is doing what!
If you and your doc decide to try the above, brace yourself for more trial and error, but, you never know... maybe your doctor already has a good idea on which drug you might be able to toss first!
It would be interesting if you could lose the atenolol, (not my favorite BP med and rife with side effects unless you're one of the lucky ones!)) since it needs to be weaned slowly, and if you were continuing with the other meds, the wean might go pretty smoothly.
zuzu xx
OOPS...P.S. Strike my suggestion for amiloride (brand name MIDAMOR).. it has weak diuretic and/or antihypertensive effects compared to the others.
Regarding the diuretic idea... If you are allergic to sulfa then the thiazides are out and so are the loop diuretics. However, potassium-sparing diuretics, like amiloride HCl (Midamor et al), spironolactone (Aldactone, and others), or triamterene (Dyrenium), may be a reasonable choices because these aren't associated with sulfa allergy or hypersensitivity.
With this in mind, definitely something to sit down and discuss again with your doctor and, as Lenin suggested, if doc agrees, discuss losing one or two of the others.
I was about to say lose "the least effective" of the others but by now you probably have no idea which drug is doing what!
If you and your doc decide to try the above, brace yourself for more trial and error, but, you never know... maybe your doctor already has a good idea on which drug you might be able to toss first!
It would be interesting if you could lose the atenolol, (not my favorite BP med and rife with side effects unless you're one of the lucky ones!)) since it needs to be weaned slowly, and if you were continuing with the other meds, the wean might go pretty smoothly.
zuzu xx
OOPS...P.S. Strike my suggestion for amiloride (brand name MIDAMOR).. it has weak diuretic and/or antihypertensive effects compared to the others.