Combining Altace and atenolol - High & Low Blood Pressure Message Board

Gojoe · 01-26-2004, 09:43 PM

Does anyone have experience combining Altace and Atenolol? I have had hbp for 20+ years. The left side of my heart is enlarged, too. 150 mg of Atenolol regulated my heartbeat but didn't do enough for my pressure. Altace alone does a good job with the bp but leaves my heart pounding and in bigeminy a good part of the time. Anyone know a reason why the two meds together would be a problem?

zip2play · 01-27-2004, 05:17 AM

Gojoe,

I see no problem combining the two if you have no serious side effects with either, like coughing from the Altace, or exhaustion, impotence and insomnia from the atenolol (huge dose BTW).

I'm AMAZED the atenolol 150 mg won't lower your BP enough. That amount of beta blockade would flatline me!

Do you have any extenuating problems that would make BP control so difficult (obesity, heavy drinking, edema, other meds???). It seems a REALLY recalcitrant case of hypertension.

CobaltBlue · 01-27-2004, 05:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gojoe

Does anyone have experience combining Altace and Atenolol? I have had hbp for 20+ years. The left side of my heart is enlarged, too. 150 mg of Atenolol regulated my heartbeat but didn't do enough for my pressure. Altace alone does a good job with the bp but leaves my heart pounding and in bigeminy a good part of the time. Anyone know a reason why the two meds together would be a problem?

I took those two together for a while and had no problems that resulted from the combination. I did have problems (ED) from beta blockers, regardless of whether it was Atenolol or Toprol. After I made changes to my lifestyle, I was able to come off the beta blockers, and shortly thereafer, come off of the ACE inhibitor too.

Gojoe · 01-28-2004, 09:59 PM

Thanks for the replies. Looks like more than a decade of neglecting my hbp has done some damage to my heart, which already had a leaky valve from childhood. The extra Atenolol (100 in the morning and 50 at night) mainly keeps my pulse under 65 or so and pretty much eliminates the long runs of pvc's that used to leave me light-headed and breathless. Unfortunately, my bp has crept back up to 150/90 so my doc added the Altace and it seems to be working. My only side effect to the Atenolol is sporadic ED.