Q: I have been on a Clonidine .2 mg./diem patch for more than a year. I also take Calcitonin-Salmon nasal spray daily for osteoporosis and Synthroid 37 mg daily for hypothyroidism. In the last several months I have experienced extreme fatigue, depression, and paranoia which sometimes lifts in the afternoon or after a cup of coffee. Do you think the Clonidine or any of the other medications or any interaction among them is responsible?
A: The problem is most likely related to your Clonidine. This drug is known to have depression and anxiety as side effects. You also want to make sure you are on the proper amount of Synthroid. Low thyroid levels can contribute to depression. You should make an appointment with your doctor to discuss your symptoms.
To review the side effects of Clonidine, visit Drugs.com >>
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Answer…….Yes, Yes, and Yes.
All of the drugs you are taking are toxic to the body and can have horrible side effects. Just google “patient complaints about _________”, and put the name of the drug in that you are concerned about. It will be quite “eye-opening”.
Armour thyroid is a far superior thyroid supplementation when compared with synthroid………ask a more open-minded wellness oriented doctor about it.
My doctor prescribed me Clonodine in 2006 because my BP was very high. I can’t recall the dosage. It was a very bad experience, highly depressive, disorganize thought & vision…
One day I walked to a supermarket, I saw all shelves & ceiling upside down, I almost fainted and held on tight to the shopping cart to help me walking.
When the doctor changed me to a calcium channel blocker, all of those symptoms went away.
Now I have worked on quitting Calcium blocker for a year, so far I am OK.
From D. Carestia previous discussions. things are moving smoothly and nicely.
Second the idea from Mak about trying another kind of drug but only if her blood pressure with no drugs was over 160 over 100. Below that, taking the drugs has been found not that protective in several studies.
And, I looked it up. Clonidine is a
BAD drug for most people, like a beta blocker, it lowers your heart rate enough to cause you problems and make exercise less effective, it tends to cause weight gain, and it causes insomnia & poor sleep in many people.
No wonder she felt depressed and badly fatigued!
Doing interval cardio first thing in the morning will lower heart rate and increase blood vessel health and flexibility without these problems and it turns OFF insomnia and helps prevent weight and fat gain. It also directly protects you against heart attacks and strokes.
So doing that plus a better drug if her blood pressure is over 160 over 100 is a MUCH better choice than taking Clonidine.
Lastly, using the Resparate or doing Tai Chi for 10 minutes on most days will lower a high heart rate if it’s due to stress and will lower high blood pressure.
I can absolutely relate to this story. I was put on .1mg Clonidine last year for spiking BP. Quite honestly, it was a nightmare! I felt like the walking dead. It made me dizzy and disoriented and interfered with my ability to think clearly. It even gave me irregular heartbeats that scared the hell out of me. BAD DRUG…period. I was switched to Lisinopril after 3 weeks, it was so bad. Over time I was wenaed off the drugs because they still made me feel not quite right, even the Lisinopril. I have to thank my naturopath for getting back to normal. I just take a few supplements now and BP is great.
I also had slightly elevated TSH and I cannot stress the effectiveness of herbs for this. The ND put me on Adrenal Health by Gaia Herbs and 6 months later my TSH dropped to well within normal limits. Take care of your adrenals as they can impact your BP too. My saliva test revealed extremely high levels of stress hormones and Cortisol which can wreak havoc on your BP from what I learned.
Clonidine is a particularly tricky drug, it fools the brain into thinking there is too much adrenaline circulating in the blood causing the brain to send signals to curtail its production, in simple words that is its working mechanism.
When playing with such a delicate system of checks and balances the doors is open for the whole apparatus to malfunction causing problems from low adrenaline and its consequences like depression and mental fog to too much adrenaline and full blown super panic attacks, I know it because I was taking that stuff and ended up in the ER a few times with a heart beat so fast that my heart couldn’t beat any faster and was on the verge to fibrillate, my BP went over 260 at the same time as measured in the ER, in a short time it all would subside and just as it all started it would disappear.
I always was the picture of calm and all of a sudden I started to have episodes out of nowhere like I described, I didn’t know I was having surges of adrenaline.
I started going over what was I doing different and reading about my drugs until I concluded it had to be the Clonidine, I quit taking it and never had one of those episodes.
My philosophy about this business of HBP is to do whatever is necessary to bring it down by natural means, I did a lot of things that were hard to give up like my cigarettes, whiskey, steaks with baked potatoes and butter going all the way to an all vegetarian diet, and being serious about physical fitness, is much more rewarding path, I assure you.
I am on clonidine and have some life changing events which definitely give cause to be mildly depressed. The symptoms you mention are also suggestive of Magnesium deficiency and if you are on any diurectics like Hydrochlorothiazide or Furosemide you definitely need to monitor your Magnesium and should be taking a supplement. just google it. there is a lot of information out there and it is suggested that more than 75% of the population are magnesium deficient.
bTW should have mentioned that it was clonidine that finally put my BP back into the normal range.
I would like to point out that Clonidine is a very effective drug in bringing down a stubborn high blood pressure case, I had a case that was resistant to several medications at the same time so finally my doctor added Clonodine to my portfolio after concluding I had malignant hypertension! The word malignant scared the hell out me since it carries with it the implication of cancer, I was trying to figure out the works of cancerous hypertension.
I learned a lot since those days, malignant hypertension is an outdated term for drug resistant hypertension as is called now days, second the most powerful vasoconstrictor is adrenaline and there are methods to mitigate its effects, the natural calcium channel blocker of magnesium is one of them, since we can look at its action the following way, in order for muscles (of all kinds) to contract calcium is the element that allows that action to be completed, ultimately contraction is the mechanical or hydraulic cause of high blood pressure, like by contraction of veins and hard pumping of the heart, magnesium is an antagonist of calcium, it interferes with the action of calcium promoting a relaxed state.
Volumetrics is another cause of drug resistant hypertension, (most commonly too much salt intake or hormonal malfunction) so is a blockage in some major arteries, kidney problems, and tumors causing too much adrenaline, in that order of frequency.
But after clearing any major medical condition if there was any, the goal should be to control blood pressure by healthy natural methods, drugs like Clonidine should be for last recourse and temporary until the body can be brought into homeostasis.
I can relate to your expereince with Clonidine as I was put on .1mg after a big spike last year. The doc told me it was an adrenaline surge for what that is worth. Over the past year, I’ve observed that my BP is normal most of the time except for doctor and dental office visits, so I think it’s just the White Coat adrenaline surge that causes the spikes. Clonidine toned it down a bit but it’s still high in the doctors office. I finally found a doctor that said as long as it comes back down it’s not an issue. I average about 120/65 with home monitoring and take no medication.
I have to concur, I was put on clonidine after a spiking blood pressure episode. It lists bad dreams and nightmares as a side effect and that is exactly what I started to have. I’m a dreamer and tend to dream everynight, but never ghoulish, demon-like, beastly dreams like the ones I started to have after taking clonidine. After reading the side effects and 3 weeks later I was also put on lisinopril and haven’t had any more nightmares ever since-going on 5 years now.
The more blood pressure meds I take the higher it goes…The Drs had me in the hosp 4 times.. once I woke up under a cat scan…..They don’t know a hill of beans about how to treat H.B.P. They All better start.. many people are suffering because of their lack of knowledge…
A reality check for me. Personal responsibility. Weight loss and exercise low sodium. After managing my pressure for 10 years no issues just taking meds. It spiked out of control. I had to start making changes in my life internally and things are now happening positively. It takes time. I am still working on the numbers and the meds. I find the more I walk or dance the better the numbers are.