Big Question... - High & Low Blood Pressure Message Board

Guy1_USA · 12-05-2007, 10:13 PM

A family member is taking a high BP medication...

It's odd because until they started this medication, they were fine with drinking alcoholic beverages.

But afterward, she started getting extremely drunk real easy. And it appears she became very addicted to this dunkeness.

Anyone have any idea what medication she could be taking...?

We are talking falling down drunk after a drink or two... where before, she could drink a number of drinks over the evening without any issues.

It appears as though she had totally become addictived to this combination of BP meds and alcohol.

Anyone know what this BP med is...?

famnd · 12-06-2007, 03:52 AM

What an interesting question!!! First thought comes to mind is some kind of beta blocker. I'll have to think about why BB's ? I take a high dose of a beta blocker. I get a similar feeling from the drug within the first hour or two that alcohol gives me. I've probably only had 5 drinks in my 60 plus yrs & those were probably 1/4 of a glass if that. The reason being is that I hated that awful feeling that alcohol gave me & could never figure out why people like to drink alcohol. Apparently alcohol makes my muscles for the first few hrs very weak just like the beta blockers. It is purely physical not the mental effects of alcohol.

I imagine combining alcohol with the medication could maybe have some kind of interaction.

What about her food intake at the time? Is she eating less so the alcohol gets metabolized right away?

Another thing, I got the same reaction from the Hepatitis Vaccine. Alcohol was an ingredient in the vaccine. None of the other ingredients seemed to be a problem.

Someone needs to talk with her before she gets in a car & drives in that state. Fam

Guy1_USA · 12-07-2007, 06:59 PM

She would normally be able to have 5 or 6 drinks in a 5 hour period. But now she if a total falling down drunk after just 2... maybe 3 drinks.

I though I heard that Beta Blockers (BB's) were never intended for lowering BP... they they were really a psyciatric medication to deal with depression or something. And it turned out that BB's just so happened to lower BP, so Doctors started prescribing it for High BP.

I also heard that BB's cause nightmares and nighttares and sleepwalking.

What can you tell me about BB's...?

Guy1_USA · 12-08-2007, 06:52 PM

Thanks everyone, for your thoughts.

famnd · 12-10-2007, 09:15 PM

Finally got a few minutes to look up info. My PDR says to avoid alcohol while on beta blockers especially excessive intake which 4 or five drinks would be for a woman (less than one drink is the rule most Docs go by). B/p can go down quickly when changing position from sitting to standing. Fam