Please help anyone! I am a smoker ( 1pk daily) ,no drinks and 51 yrs old male. I accidently tried Zoloft 25mg for my insomnia ( 2 weeks). First day of Zoloft, I had a bad reaction (?) that made me felt heavy pulse on the back of both of my knees and extremely anxiety. The second day of Zoloft, I felt tremendous amount of headache an sometimes early in the morning, my left arm was cold while the other was warm..I quited Zoloft on the fourth day and woke up with a steammy body from my heat to my shoulder to my pennis are all "hot" as high fever. My bp then jumped from 112/72 to 156 /85 . My body especially the head,neck and hands and feet are always feel steammy heat. All the follows test are negative : thyroid mri, lung, abdomen, adrenal glamds mri...I was put on Norvasc 5mg but I couldnot handle the rapid beating of my heart and the weaken of my body ( Extremely fatigue). My Bp went up 145/95/98 after I quited Norvarsc..Cr put me on Altace which keep my bp at normal 125/79/80 after couple days. I was lucky without the cough but The Altace made my body and face and neck hotter and redder then the sore throat..swollen liips...I have been off all meds for a week now. I consume a lot of garlic and celery in hope to keep bp low. Still 120/80 in the early morning...124/84/85 after shower...but inthe afternoon and evening, i feel very hot on my face and neck and bp readings go up to 140/90/92...I am afraid of dying from stroke or heart attack but the side effects of CCB ( Norvarsc) and Altace also freighten me. Please have me advised anyone. Thanks.

If your average bp at rest is under 140 systolic, you probably can do without the medicine. Because all the pills have strange effects on you, you should, of course,
spend several weeks without any of them. You'll probably find you're ok. You won't
dying of a stroke or a heart attack just because your bp hovers around 140/90 part
of the day. If you do decide you need a bit of bp help, go with a low dose diuretic
or ARB first, in my opinion. You certainly don't need much help.

Hi PAL 778. Tks for your reply. I am thinking abt going back to 5mg Norvacs since mr. Dr. was kind of upset with me with all my strange effects abd he didnot know why. Do you know why my bp readings so good in the morning ( without meds) around 124/82 but in the afternoon and especially in the evening around 6 pr 7 pm , it gets so bad that I feel dizzy, tight in my head, all over my body getting hot and my readings last was 156/97 then the second reading was 140/90. The heart rate was around stably 80/81 ? I know you are not a licensed Dr. but sometimes experience is the best. Tks in advance. Andrew

Bp often goes up during the day. People vary in how their bp fluctuates during the day, but everyone fluctuates. It's normal, in other words, to experience a rise, although 156 is more than borderline high. But, still, mildly high bp shouldn't cause all those symptoms. The danger would be longterm. Look elsewhere for causes--maybe to anxiety, which by itself can easily cause isolated high or even very high readings. Your symptoms (more than your bp) are pronounced enough that you need a sympathetic doc who won't look to hbp medicine for the remedy. Here's the impossible-to-follow advice: Relax! It's unlikely you're in immediate danger. And consider the various nonmedicinal methods of getting calmer, beginning with regular, moderate exercise. Stop smoking, of course. Finally, if you do use a CCB--
try a low dose of diltiazem, which in my experience is more likely to be side-effect free.

From what I've read, the majority of people have their highest resting BP of the day just upon rising and it goes down within the next few hours. I strongly suspect if your pressure is higher later in the day than in the morning, that is due to stress. Do you have a stressful job, stressful commute, or personal problems that cause stress?

Stress is a known factor in raising BP. I'm a good example. My BP was usually 120/80 in the doctor's office until my husband had a stroke and I became caregiver 24/7. Within a few months I had to go on BP medication. I stayed on a high dose (30 mg) of Lisinopril for four years until about seven months after my husband's death, when I was able to reduce the dosage to 10 mg. Another year later after making dietary changes, I was able to get off the meds altogether. Whether it was the long-term stress that caused it or the fact that I'm now six years older, I don't know, but I haven't been able to get my SBP average back down to 120, it has been running 125-127 most of this year. Currently it is up from that, but I've been having unrelated medical problems recently which are affecting it.

I can appreciate what you are going through. I have tried three different bp medications and they have not lowered my bp. Within two hours after taking them my bp will spike to 180/110. Then I get so nervous, I take a xanax a low dose of .25mg. to calm down and my bp will go to 128/78 within one hour and then as low as 119/76 in the morning. By noon it is up to 147/85 and can go to 160/90 by nightime. I don't feel dizzy or hot or anything. I have limited my salt intake and only have 1 cup regular coffee but no other caffiene during the day. I have always been active with exercise and am not over weight. What I wonder but my doctor doesn't agree, why wouldn't one xanax a day be more beneficial than trying all of these different meds.

I am a teacher in the inner city schools. I like my job, but it seems to get harder and harder each year. Not the teaching...but the lack of interest, incentive, parental concern, and feeling sorry for kids who come to school so dirty....wearing the same shirt for weeks straight that I find ways to exchange their shirts and bring them home and wash them myself! Believe it or not, I teach 3rd. grade with students who have a "cussing" vocabulary better than their reading vocabulary. I wonder if my frustration....mostly with the parents who seem to have no interest in their children could actually be the causing my anxiety....thus my blood pressure being so up and down.

Hope you can get yours under control better than I seem to be doing. I have been told to keep taking the bp meds that it will take several weeks for them to work, but I sure wish I could see some results of lowering rather than raising when I take them. Has that happened to You?

sorry my post does not help by giving you advice or any help unless to know someone else might be as confused as you.

I do have a post on the board under TROUBLE WITH BP MED IF YOU THINK MY PROBLEM MIGHT BE SIMILAR TO YOURS.

I can't figure out how to reply to your post. It keeps going under mine.....
Trouble with meds......cccowl

here is a little news about not taking your bp medicine because u dont think u need it and i was bad at that to untill now and for the one who said u wont die of a heart attack or stroke i just helped my kids bury there father my ex husband .just got results of autopsy today he died because of high blood pressure he didnt take his meds either he said he didnt need them wasnt that high enough to kill him either and for the ones who have children my daughter was the one who found him she called him everynight before he went to sleep and he called her everymorning before he went to work she got no call that morning why all because he wouldnt take the med my daughter is so angry with him because he died for that reason so u might want to think again about the bp meds he just turned 47