More drug-related questions: Blood presssure plls, anyone?

[gremlin]

Higher dose of Ramipril? Or a different drug? Or (more) changes to your lifestyle?

I only mention it because (anecdotally, natch') a relative's doctor was all - this is " high, but not high enough to really concern ... " - and the patient quite soon after suffered a (fortunately limited longterm impact) stroke.

Done Amlodipine but that made me feel dreadful and had bugger all effect on the bp. Now trying Ramipril side-effect less: headache, explosive shits, thankfully now calming down, but again no real noticeable positive effect on the bp.

Changes to lifestyle? I'm 76KG and 178cm tall, 32" waist. I exercise 6/7 times a week doing all sorts of weights, cross training & running, I eat well in that I have no prepacked food, every dinner is nutritionally scrutinised by my resident nutritionist, Mrs. G, and made from scratch and I am denied any salt. My only vice is a few beers/wines/Negoni/[insert bevvy here] of a weekend and if I give that up I may as well keel over and die. Taipan can come and collect the Trumpet if it happens.

[Taipan]

62 yrs old. Fatty. Drink too much wine, but I dont eat shite. Average 136/73

[DefTrap]

Changes to lifestyle? I'm 76KG and 178cm tall, 32" waist. I exercise 6/7 times a week doing all sorts of weights, cross training & running, I eat well in that I have no prepacked food, every dinner is nutritionally scrutinised by my resident nutritionist, Mrs. G, and made from scratch and I am denied any salt. My only vice is a few beers/wines/Negoni/[insert bevvy here] of a weekend and if I give that up I may as well keel over and die. Taipan can come and collect the Trumpet if it happens.

Yeah I get that it's unfair, and I'm not having a go because I know first hand how quickly and desperately folk can alter lifestyle when they have to (my own relly very quickly became teetotal because "having just one glass" was more tortuous)

[Mr. Dazzle]

Have you tried developing a cocaine/heroine/MDMA habit? I bet one of them reduces BP.

[gremlin]

Have you tried developing a cocaine/heroine/MDMA habit? I bet one of them reduces BP.

I've worked in financial markets since the late 80's.

S'all I'm saying...

[Mr. Dazzle]

Have you tried giving up some habits?

[Count Steer]

I guess some of us were just built as high compression units. Y'know, like competition engines.

I know, I know, need rebuilding regularly and frequently blow up.

[gremlin]

Have you tried giving up some habits?

It was never a habit, trust me.

The comedown was fucking debilitating. A few tries and that was me sticking to a pint, thank you very much.

[v8-powered]

Had a bit of a BP scare myself....

Work has been really busy / stressful for a while.now and has been taking its toll, last weekend I felt really rough so took my BP - 168 / 101! Felt like i was going to explode.

Been monitoring daily all week, down to a more acceptable 135 / 82 today. Still not good but better...

[Wossname]

Had a bit of a BP scare myself....

Work has been really busy / stressful for a while.now and has been taking its toll, last weekend I felt really rough so took my BP - 168 / 101! Felt like i was going to explode.

You were.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Had a bit of a BP scare myself....

Work has been really busy / stressful for a while.now and has been taking its toll, last weekend I felt really rough so took my BP - 168 / 101! Felt like i was going to explode.

You were.

Only a tiny bit of him.

A really important bit though.

[Count Steer]

When mine was 180/100+ I didn't feel any different from when it's 120/80. OTOH if I'm feeling rough for other reasons it raises my BP.

Anyways, I've decided to drop to 2.5mg amplodipine per day instead of 2 × 2.5mg and bump it back up if it creeps up again. So far it seems to work. Just wondering whether I should tell the Doc I've gone rogue.

[gremlin]

Been on the Ramipril for a few weeks now. No noticeable side effects.

Today's reading:

114/71 HR:53bpm

I'll take that.

[MrLongbeard]

wrote a stern note on my home BP sheet to give in to the doc's next week,

2 months later GP reads note and ask me to come in and discuss current meds.
Of course as the world has continued to turn between now and then I'm now in a different place and running around 126/68, which is about as good a reading as I've ever achieved, still lets get a weeks worth of results and see what it is properly

[Count Steer]

I've been monitoring my BP again as I have a review with the Doc coming up. (Currently on 5mg of Amlodipine/day, split into 2.5mg doses but I've been self-adjusting to 2.5mg/day and plan to ask to try changing to Ramprimil because I think that there are unwelcome side effects to Amlodipine).

Readings done first thing in the morning and last thing at night. Average of 3. Usually take 4 and scrap the first.

Broke my zero alcohol regime and had a large glass of red wine with evening meal recently. Result, evening BP reading 104/74 instead of the typical 120/80ish. Not that I'm recommending booze to treat high blood pressure but it does lower your readings.

Just that one-off readings at random times of day don't tell you much and the readings the doctors do when you attend for an appointment are absolutely pointless.

It's a shame the data-logger types of device are stupidly expensive - unless you plump for a random Xingpongtingpau type brand on Amazon.

[MrLongbeard]

Not that I'm recommending booze to treat high blood pressure but it does lower your readings.

Yeah, that's probably a good thing as booze increases blood pressure.
Latests weekly average 126/72, that'll do.

[Count Steer]

Not that I'm recommending booze to treat high blood pressure but it does lower your readings.

Yeah, that's probably a good thing as booze increases blood pressure.
Latests weekly average 126/72, that'll do.

In general, yup, but with medium doses you can observe a decrease, short term. (+ an increase in pulse). eg

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8130994/

[MrLongbeard]

Nah, not for me, the days where I have a pint before taking my BP stand out in big flashing neon numbers on my log sheet, in a sea of 120's those 140 readings are clear as day