Blood Pressure

[Rodneykrantz]

Woke up this morning very dizzy went to the Doctor Blood pressure was 169 over 110 He gave me Benicar 20mg does anybody know about this
and what can I expect I am 51 years old

[wagon217]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rodneykrantz Woke up this morning very dizzy went to the Doctor Blood pressure was 169 over 110 He gave me Benicar 20mg does anybody know about this and what can I expect I am 51 years old

try benicar.com for the information you are looking for.

[SarahW]

Rodney--Google is your friend, for more info about high blood pressure and Benicar. Good luck to you, and I'm glad you got to the doctor ASAP.

[demoon]

Have had high BP since I was about your age and it is important to figure out IF there is an underlying cause. Once that is determined they are in a much better position to prescribe the correct meds. I have not heard of the one you are taking, but the two I am on keeps the BP well under control and I will turn 72 in March.

[Elkhartjim]

There are many, many medications prescribed for hypertension. I suggest you monitor you BP yourself (buy a BP cuff) and keep records for several weeks. The meds that work for me may not work for you. It was not until my doc prescribed a diuretic did the other two BP meds get my BP to the magical 120/80 level.

Good luck with you treatment.

[jlyon69]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rodneykrantz Woke up this morning very dizzy went to the Doctor Blood pressure was 169 over 110 He gave me Benicar 20mg does anybody know about this and what can I expect I am 51 years old

I'm not familiar with Benicar except it's an Angiotensin Receptor Blocker (ARB). My first heart attack was when I was 51 (had two stints put in right coronary). My last heart attack was in June last year. This was a biggy and had a triple by-pass. Family history is CAD (Coronary Artery Disease) and high blood pressure. Mine didn't really start until I was 50, I'm 60 now.

I'm on a Beta blocker and an ACE inhibitor. I'm also on a diuretic (water pill) as being a bit dehydrated will lower blood pressure and help flush your system of salt.

To help yourself reduce high BP, lose weight if overweight, exercise more. If you're a salt fiend like I am/was, don't use any extra salt at the table. If you have diabetes (like I do), you are many more times apt to have heart problems with high BP. High BP also causes kidney problems. So don't fool around with it.

I bought a wrist BP taker at the drug store, maybe 50 bucks. You might want to get one to monitor your BP between office visits. If the medication isn't working or working too good, you can call the Dr and he can adjust your meds with you on the phone (at least mine does). Good Luck!

[ToddGaddy]

im 49 and went on benacar last year and have not had any side effects, good luck,

[wa8yxm]

First do not drive for a day or two till things stablize. That BP that high can be dangerous and when you bring it back down it can throw you for a loop till you re-adjust.

I would do as suggested, go to the drug's web page, also chedk WebMD for side effects and such,,, However that med's been around a while, it is generally effective. though how effective I do not recall, and generally considered safe (Key word generally)

NO medication is 100% safe however. So till you get things settled down, Make regular visits to ye-old-doctor.

YOu can also get information on many meds, Patient to Patient support, at http://community.compuserve.com/diabetes... Compuserve used to have just about the best on-line medical place in existance (Human s*xuality forum) but alas, I've not seen it (nor tried to) in a long time.. I know the good folks in Diabetes have "Branched" out into a number of chronic conditions of which Hypertension (High BP) is one of them.. though we FOCUS on Diabetes Mellitius. (Insulin related diabetes)

Fpr others.. The forum features a irregularry updated list of all FDA recalls (Soon as they come out, within 23 hours they are normally on the forum's Recalls thread)

Registration required to post, AOL user names and passwords work (AOL, Netscape or Compuserve or their Instant Messagners)

[barlin44]

I have not heard of benicar either and I too have high BP and take two meds. I have hypertetion and stress..Stress really plays a big part in high BP as well as the salt like mentioned above...Do get a cuff to measure your BP at home and keep a log.

Listen to your doc and stay on top of this.....Good Luck

[frankdamp]

When I was working for Boeing and under a LOT of pressure professionally, I stopped by one of those automated BP machines in the company cafeteria. It was the Friday before a 3-day holiday. My BP measured 200/140. DW commented that I looked a bit frazzled when I got home and I told her what the BP measurement had been.

On the Monday afternoon of the holiday, I took my BP on a machine we had at home and it came out at 142/82. Did workplace stress have an impact? Bet your boots it did!

A few weeks later, we did all the arithmetic on whether I could retire at 58 and decided that, while it was a bit marginal, we could. The company was totally disinterested in finding me a less stressful job that didn't involve all the international travel. In the last 12 months before I bagged it, I'd been overseas for 29 weeks and none of the trips were more than 10 days' duration. They were all to really interesting, safe places like Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Brunei, United Arab Emirates. Two trips to Basel, Switzerland were the only bright spots.

Haven't regretted pulling the plug on all that crap. I've been back to the kite factory on two assignments as a contract employee and also have spent about 3 years working for our local county transit agency as a bus driver. Now fully retired, at 70, I'm hoping DW and I will have a long-ish stretch as RVers. The bus driver training made the transition to a 32' Class A a breeze.

An angioplasty wasn't the Christmas present I was hoping for at the end of 2011, but after four stents were installed, everything seems to be back on an even keel. I was only in hospita three days!

Caridac rehab and a sleep study to figure out why the respiration monitor kept flagging "APNEA" while I was in hospital are in the immediate future. DW has insisted for about five years that I suffered from Sleep Apnea, but I disagreed. I sure hope 2012 is less "exciting" tha 2011!

For those of you on BP and associated cardiac medications, I'm on three BP meds (Lisinopril, Amlodipine Besylate and Carvedilol) plus Lipitor for cholesterol reduction and Plavix to prevent clotting of blood around the stents.

Our Mediacre PDP gave me prices that about knocked me off my chair. The Lipitor was $199 a month and Plavix $167 a month. We went with a Canadian Pharmacy (British Columbia based) and got 3 month's supply of both meds for $133. I was surprised when the package arrived, as it was air-mailed from Frankfurt, Germany, but whatever - the price was right.

[Cat320]

Check here:

Mayo Clinic

PDR Health | Rx Drug Interactions, Side Effects | Official site of physician desk reference

WebMD - Better information. Better health.

[demoon]

Not fixing an RV here folks - have to keep on top of the problem via rechecks with a doctor. Having your own monitor and keeping a log are great ideas, but if the BP does not get down to close to a normal reading you need to get back to the doc. While taking your readings, it is good to take it at the same time, under the same conditions in order to get a better picture. Good luck Rodney and be safe.

[PyrateSilly]

Thom usually goes to the VA for his yearly checkup. He does have insurance thru work so he started to see a private doc for some other things. That doc put him on Lisinopril cause his BP is normally a little high.
He started coughing alot. Not hard coughing but enough of a cough that I mentioned it. He was waking himself up with it too. His dad went into the hospital to get some stints. A week later he went back in with a problem. Mentioned to his doc that his tounge felt a little swollen and stuff. His dads doc took him off the same drug that Thom was on.
A few weeks later Thom and I both had our yearly with the VA doc and he mentioned to her his problems since with the coughing. The VA doc had him stop the Lisinopril immediatly. It seems that you can become allergic to it which is what happened to both his dad and Thom. It seems that if he did not wake up when he was coughing he could have died with his throat closing up. It also seems that it is very easy to become allergic to it. The VA doc than had him measure his BP for a month to verify that he did not need any meds anyway. He does take some meds for cholestoral and bringing his sugar down before developing diabities, which he seems to be close to doing.

Just be careful on it. If you start getting any syptoms that you never had before then PLEASE talk to your doctor.

[Elkhartjim]

I'm not sure the op is reading this thread or not but I would like to stress one point please. Don't self diagnose, don't self prescribe and don't believe everything you read on the internet. If you have questions, ask your health care provider. He/she knows your history, other meds you may be taking, etc.

The internet is a powerful tool that can give a novice a heart attack when we don't have the knowledge and training needed to understand all the information out there.