Q: I am a relatively healthy 61 year old, African American male. I take Lisinopril 10mg and Crestal 20mg, I feel the two are helping a great deal, however, at times I fail to take them daily as prescribed and will go a month, feel great, light jogging,lifting light weights and strong other drive, then suddenly head-aches. Am I hurting myself by failing to take medication as prescribed?
A: You are hurting yourself when you don’t take medicine as prescribed. When you don’t take your medicine, your blood pressure can shoot out of control and put you at risk of having a heart attack or stroke. This is especially true if you don’t take your medicine for a whole month. Most blood pressure medicines will be completely out of your system by then.
Further Reading:
Decongestants Pose Potential Risk to High Blood Pressure Sufferers – Medicalnewstoday.com
Decongestant and High Blood Pressure – The Risky OTC Drug – Minus Blood Pressure.com
Then again, you may be hurting yourself by taking these medications regularly, but only IF your hypertension can be controlled naturally. It sounds as if you do well off medications for a while, and then you suffer some bouts of hypertension (assuming that the headaches are a symptom of hypertension).
First, I wonder if you take your blood pressure regularly at home? If not, you should be doing that in my humble opinion. You won’t know whether being off your meds is working or not if you don’t monitor daily. By doing this, you also may be able to pinpoint the causes of blood pressure increases. Knowing the cause of your hypertension can lead to effective natural treatment. I certainly agree that to allow your blood pressure to get too high, is not a healthy thing. It seems that you may be doing well most of the time, however, which suggests you may be a good candidate for control of your blood pressure without meds. If so, you need to go about it in a much safer way. Doctor Sherry Rogers’ book entitled, “The High Blood Pressure Hoax” was instrumental in helping me get off of high blood pressure medications, and provides a safer, systematic method. Good luck to you, and all the best!!