Q: I’ve diagnosed for over 10 years of high blood pressure. Currently my doctor has me on 4 medications. They are Atenolol (5mg), Amlodipine (Vorvasc) 5 mg, and Lisinopril/Hctz )20 mg and 12.25 2twice a day. Do I really need this many drugs to control my high blood pressure? What steps should be taken to reduce the amount of medicine? Do I need a 2nd opinion?
A: You failed to say if your blood pressure is in good control with all these drugs. If you are in good control and not experiencing nasty side effects, it is hard to argue with success. Keep in mind that life style changes may help you reduce your drug needs. Also, you may want to try the Resperate. If you are not in control and have made all the recommended lifestyle changes, a second opinion isn’t a bad idea. Sometimes a different approach will solve a problem or at least give you peace of mind.
Further Reading:
What is RESPeRATE? – resperate.com
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I don’t think you can judge success by having your blood pressure under control when you are taking 4 different drugs. Nearly all drugs have side effects so it begs the question “what is this cocktail of drugs doing to the rest of your body”
I have to agree with Mike Roberts reply. Taking 4 different drugs to lower blood pressure can never be a piece of cake for the rest of your body.
I think so too. There are several things one needs to try and see how they work. A cause may underlie HBP. Taking 4 drugs one does not know which one has effect. Changing medication, loosing weight and doing exercise have worked all together; some find that stress is increasing BP especially trying to cope with financial difficulties,education of children and demanding work. Looking at priorities in lifestyles is worth looking at.
my mother was on 5-6 pills a day. for yrs. she went to a different dr. they took her off all the pills and her bp was controlled by 2 pills a day and she lived to be 90.
Some of us have a combination of issues that cause our hypertension and several different types of medication are necessary to get it under control. The question to ask is does your combination work for you. What works for someone else may not work for you. Track your pressure several times a day for a week or more to make sure you don’t have dangerous spikes or drops.
Did you talk to your doctor about your concerns? If not, why not? Don’t you trust your doctor? If you don’t feel comfortable with your doctor, then by all means get a second opinion.
You have not mentioned whether or not your BP is controlled with the present regimen. However, all drugs have side effects. It would not be unreasonable for you to consult another physician – either a specialist in hypertension or a cardiologist who specializes in hypertension. A second opinion may ease your anxiety and clarify your options.
First,never trust any doctor with your health. Second,by all means get a second and even a third opinion. Doctors had me over medicated with 4 drugs for 2 years. I finally found a doctor that helped me adjust my medication and i was able to stop taking two of the drugs.I then was taking a calcium channel blocker and a beta blocker. I recently reduced the beta blocker from 12.5 mg twice aily to 6 mg twice daily.Side effects for the two years they had me on 4 drugs included 40% loss of hearing,insomia,depression,major digestive problems. Do everything possible to get off them drugs including,losing weight,exercise,more vegestables and fruits,garlic,dark chocolate,tomato juice,beet juice,fish oil supplements,celery,etc.
When my Dr. wanted to put me on b.p. med, I got the RX. It was for 25 mg.. I cut it half and took 12 mg.
Then I decided I don’t want to ruin my liver, and I decided to walk to lower it. It worked. I walk morn and evening, and then i got a job where I was walking for 5 hours. I take garlic pills too. It works, Don’t take medication if you can handle it naturally. Niacin good for chloresterol.. look up alternative med ways.. take vitamins instead, eat, exercise right.
I agree, you cannot put all of your trust in doctors, you have to do what it takes on your end, also, to get off the meds. I own a resperate, and trust it more than my meds. I also exercise & watch my food intake. I have a ways to go weight-wise (330), but my bp is now 120/80, so I’m on the right track. You can, too, but you have to do the work.
Oh, and I’m on amlodipine & lisinopril
It seem the goal of this response is to sell the DRUG “Resperate”. Not a cry different from Sub-prime money launders–crooks, theives, hoarders, of your persious earned money.
I could not agree with Mike and Jerry more! There are natural ways to help control high blood pressure and they avoid the toxic drugs that you are taking now. Start googling. Check out Dr. Sherri Rogers’ book, “The High Blood Pressure Hoax”. You will find many, many natural approaches. For example, celery is a natural diuretic, as are dandelion leaf, juniper berries, and many more natural food supplements. Pomegranate is a natural ace inhibitor. Far infrared sauna can help dilate and soften hardened arteries over time. Chelation therapy can also improve circulation. Relaxation techniques area important if your hypertension is stress induced. EECP can lower blood pressure permanently for many people. A healthy diet and exercise are a must. A healthy diet does not include sugars and refined carbohydrates. It does include healthy oils like fish oil and flax oil, fruits, vegatables, and healthy proteins. Regular exercise (5 days per week for an hour each day) can help reduce stress and lower blood pressure.
Again, there are lots of natural approaches that can help you. You need to try some things to see what works for you if you are interested in getting off all of the toxic medication you are taking.
Good luck, and all the best!!
And, a little “p.s.” to the people who run this blog……….get a physician on board, perhaps an MD/ND, who actually knows something about natural treatment of hypertension! That is clearly NOT Dr. Rowena!!
One of the main problems of all beta bockers (Atenolol, Toprol, Sotalol, in general all ended in “ol”)is that once you are taking them for a while you cannot stop without experiencing serious side effects, like a rebound in high blood pressure and heart ahrritmias. Its prolonged use also causes cold extremities, low tolerance to physical exercise, low heart rate (bradycardia), sexual disfunction and probably weaken the heart muscle in the long run. I would try natural approaches first like losing weight, eating more vegetables, fruits and less sugar and other carbohydrates, doing regular exercise, increasing my intake of potassium and magnessium (not from supplements but from from foods rich in these minerals), and other natural methods like Resperate. if all of that fails, then I would slowly start on antihypertensive drugs, but as a last resort, not as a first choice.
For over 20 years I had very high b/p and 21 different drugs in different combinations were tried – all giving horrendous side-effects, which required me to come off them, even before I could get up to the medicinal dosage.I then saw a hypertension Specialist who recommended the use of the ‘Respirate’ machine and a very small dose of ‘Spironolactone’. Within a few weeks I went from 200+/100+ to 130+/75+. I am 65 years old and feel wonderful!
Too many medicine for a High BP .Do not alow any doctor here on board, because all are brainwashed by the Pereverted so call MEDICINE.Do not trust any of them!!In this time you need second and third opinion or ton sof opinions until you find a honest and wise doctor ! Measure your BP twice a day,and keeping a healty diet ,little salt ,natural potasium and mageziun ,exercize,sleep well,rest often,and little by little get rid of all medicine or of 3 at least.Is not easy but is possible.Al previous advice about a natural heathy aproach are very good !the most important :Do not give up !is possible to escape of this ABOMINATION OF THIS DAYS OF GREEDY FARMACY -4 MEDICINE FOR B.P!
In 1994 I had a stroke due to hugh blood pressure. I was 5′ 10″ and weighted 140 lbs. I was prescribed Procardia and soon became impotent. I was 45. Some years later I changed to a black doctor who prescribed me three pills and told me my prior doctor did not take into consideration my ethnic background. From that time until now I have a consistant pressure of 113/70 and I am not impotent anymore. I am now 62.I was told three pills for a black person.
It’s been very interesting to read the variety of replies. I’m in the same position as Admin. I take Amlodipine, Atenolol, Lasix, and Lisinopril. I’ve been on them for years, yet sometimes my BP is not well-controlled. I exercise every day, from my exercise bike to qigong (Chi Kung, to some)and resistance exercises. I eat no beef, little pork, and a good deal of fish and white chicken and turkey meat, but MOSTLY fruits and vegetables. I’ve had a heart attack (12 years ago)and colon cancer. I look for natural methods constantly. I hate taking the Calcium Channel Blocker, since I blame my pain and edema in my feet and lower legs on it, yet every time I’ve worked with a doctor to get off it, my feet felt great buy my BP went through the roof. My main veggie consumption is of broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, cauliflower, bok choy, and I eat 3-4 “servings” at a time. I’ve tried everything I can imagine, but telling me to eat fruit and veggies and exercise is simply redundant, since I already do these things faithfully. Yet I seem to be trapped in this pharmaceutical “prison” and I hate it. And I’m a retired senior who honestly believed that once I left the stress of my workplace I could get off the meds. Hasn’t happened. So I know what it’s like, but I don’t know the answers.
Do stay on resperate. Ilove this product. Also get on a product called TIKVA. Amazing. With the resperate an tikva you will be off all meds. It works. Its L-arginine. Another cheaper product is l-arginine plus. Have not tried it but heard its good. Love the tikva. FIND IT ON THE WEB. STAY ON RESPERATE ALSO.
I too was diagnosed with high B.P and 4 med’s were given The side affect’s were hindering everyday life “NO”enerrgy for anything I weaned myself and do it naturaly. I just love your reading your replie’s “GOT MORE”. THey say that medical care is spiraling out of control, Dah, real in some of these Dr.s perscription writing and that will help bring medical in line.A few year’s ago I had the priviledge of meeting a retired couple ,the man a retired pharmasuitcal salesman and one day I had to ask the question ,do dr.s get any favor’s for perscribing the salesman’s drug’s answer yes for instance season ticket’s to your football team or ticket’s to Disney land. Does’nt this make you wonder “Do I realy need this drug or am I helping the Dr. go to Disney Land ?????LOVE YOUR ARTICLE’s “
I am 66 years old, already retired from my job and I can tell every time I went to see a doctor in the last 10 years or so they have found my blood pressure to be high (around 170/105) or so and every time I left the office I came out with an antihypertensive drug prescription….which I faithfully have never took. If that supposed HBP of mine had been something else than the usual “white coat hypertension” (to which so many Americans owe their present status of HBP drugs dependency, with all of it’s nasty side effects and all of its dangers)I should be dead by now, or paralized or speech affected as a consequence of some stroke or should have 3 or 4 coronary bypasses, or maybe I should be a heart attack survivor, but nothing like that has ever happened to me so far, so I must be doing something right to preserve my present relatively good health. Either that or most of the current theory behind hypertension is plainly wrong, at least in my case. I know for sure that once you are started on an antihypertensive drug, your body adapts to it, specifically your cardiovascular system,and after some time it cannot function properly any longer without that medication and this is why you experience a high blood pressure rebound once you stop taking it, only this time is not going to be a “white coat HBP syndrome”, but true HBP, induced ironically by the same drug that was supposed to treat it. This is why many times even a combination of several drugs is unable to control the blood pressure of some individuals: because their organisms have adapted to the drugs and they are no longer effective in their cases. I think it is a big mistake to pretend that a sixty someting person should aim to have the same blood pressure of a young adult because like it or not, your arteries are going to stiffen as a natural consequence of aging. Just how stiff they become depends, of course, of the kind of life you have lived, you simply cannot pretend to fix with a pill or two many years of excesses, including bad nutrition, lack of exercise, maybe smoking, alcohol or drugs abusing.
I have been on HBP for about 12 years with it controlled very well. I have 2 stents in my heart. About 2 months ago it went up to 197 over 119 and wouldnt go down. I ended up in the ER. I had a stress test, angiogram of heart and kidneys, and I am now taking 5 different meds, some at max strength, and some twice a day. I take 100mg Metoprolol, 2 x day, .2 clonidine 2 x day, 100/25 losartan hct, and Demedex. It usually spikes in the morning and I usually take a hydralazine when systolic is over 170. When my BP is high, I get very short of breath.
For the past 5 years I have been taking medication for Hi-Bloor Pressure. I have a reading of 160/120 of sometimes 145/115. I stopped taking medication now for the past 5 weeks. I have been using celery, 2 stalks in a blender along with Spinach and some Orange juice of Apple juice. I blent all three then dring. I have had a lowering of mt PB, so far. I will be checking with my Dr. to get his opinion as well. I did change my diet by eating no meat, and more fruits & vegetables.