Well!My bp has been really stable for over 12 months ,120 /130 70/80. So reduced Losartan from 100mg to 50mg ( 25mg twice a day) on Dr's advice.
Monitor regularly. Few weeks back,Monitor packed up but didn't replace immediately, didn't feel the need urgently.
However last week felt a bit tired and not quite myself. Got new one on Monday ( Bank Holiday)
Took pressure 202/124/56 the first thing thought was it's faulty. Took again half hour later 192/115/56
Still unconvinced waited till Mr W came home and made him do it. He was fine.
Rang Dr's, shut. Considered A n E but Bank Holiday (?!)
Decided to revert to original dose of Losartan, drink lots of water and wait.
Checked nhs site said If 180/90 + AND headache,chest pain etc go to A n E.
No felt fine otherwise.
Rang Dr's first thing on Tuesday,of course all appointments gone but when I said what's what receptionist said she would get Dr to call. He did and said I did right thing to go back to original post,Monitor for a week different times and report back. I asked if I should have gone to A n E and he said no.
So fed up! Yesterday 157/75/55 pm today 179/94/56 first thing before meds.
Trying very hard not to get obsessed but obviously bit unsettling.
Has anyone else had bp.go higher for no apparent reason and if so what was done?
Dr said if Losartan not working might need additional meds. I couldn't tolerate Ramapril at all, tried it first before Losartan.
Sorry for long post!
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I have been in similar situations with BP but after visits with doctor they said my BP was okay. It is normal to have variable readings during the day but maybe not as high as some of yours. Worth getting it checked out by doctor
Good morning friend. I have been weened of the rampiril. Made me feel dreadful and BP 90/50 sometimes even lower. Dr has split my bisoprolol 3.75 in the morning and 2.5 in the evening. As she explained it will need fine tuning. Last Sunday BP fine 137/73 but heart rate 104 . As you I have been riding it out. And check every couple of days, as I have been asked to do. Being permanent in AF , doesn’t feel so good. And I am sure it goes even higher as I get very sob .hope you are feeling better soon. Hugs and love from Rienij xx
Good morning Rienji nice to hear from you although sorry to hear you are having trouble too. I had difficulty with ramipril too like you. I hope you soon get settled down again. Xx
Mine went all over the place and often very high after a random increase in Potassium.My bp had always been good 120/70-80 since being 'older'.GP fiddled with meds. but no joy. Wanted to prescribe Losatin but cardio. disagreed and eventually went onto 20mg of Furosimide and 5mg of Amplodipine. Fiddled again and it is now back to normal on 2.5mg of Amplodipine and 20mg of Furosimide. The moral of this story is it can take a long time to get back to your normal bp once it goes a bit potty.
I'm reading your numbers as BP 189/124 and bpm 56, am I doing that right?
The slightest anxiety with me and my blood pressure shoots up. Think I may have told the story on here when I thought I'd had a stroke, ambulance took me to hospital and the BP monitor alarm was going off all the time. My mind made it do that, because the truth is I hadn't had a stroke, as there was nothing wrong with me whatsoever. I'd had a pain in my head when trying to lift a heavy door into my garage, looked in the mirror later and had a crease down by the side of my mouth. Panicked and dialled 999, my daughter came to the hospital immediately and said she could see nothing wrong with my face. I bleated that I never had that line on the side of my mouth before. Well of course I had, just hadn't seen it from that angle. I was kept in overnight, given all sorts of tests next day and passed them all. Sent home feeling really silly.
Yep, in my fear I'd made my BP go up. To be honest I'm still embarrassed about it now.
I haven't taken my bp reading for a few weeks. Machine broke.
Felt a bit off last week. These readings are all hovering around that figure,even on waking. Taking 3 times a day or Dr and trying to let it go its own way.
l would have been just the same Jean. Slightest anxiety with me and up goes BP. I have very low BP normally so it goes from one extreme to the other. Not so good for AF but then anxiety is the other half of this condition. If only l could be calm……..
sounds rather high to me. My bp can suddenly shoot up for no apparent reason and then I take my candesartan for a few days and then taper it off by taking every other day when it comes down again. Dare not take it all the time because I feel lousy when lower bp is in the 50s or low 60s. It is always lower in the mornings than the evening. Good luck
Hi GrannyE, I've just started 4mg candesartan once daily after ramapril made me ill, but my bp is still high. Just wondering what your regular dose is?
when I first started them it was 4mg twice daily. Now it is 2mg twice daily when it is really high for me but mostly I don’t need it at all now. When my bp is too high I get a headache and when too low I become dizzy.
I was really poorly, clutching my stomach area. Had hospital tests that must have cost the NHS a fortune, but all I had to do was stop taking ramipril.
Hi!
If you compare your BP values with the new "gold standard" of 120/80 or even 140/90, you will be very worried. Your values are far above it.
But, if you understand that these values are too low for the elderly (see the article via the link), than your "override" will be far less. I believe that everybody knows about ancient rule 100+age and the limit values from the article are more or less about the same. Personally, without the BP medication at 71, I often measure high values, like 170/90, but am not worried at all. Sometimes, it goes as high as 190/120 (only when under stress), whereby I feel some pressure in the head and my tinnitus in the left ear gets worse. But this condition is transient...
The reason is so they can tell people they have high blood pressure and then prescribe medication for it. There are a lot of things people can do to naturally lower BP that they never bother to mention. And a lot people would rather take the medication than put in the effort it takes to lower it without the meds.
Interestingly, BP is the parameter that is not regulated at all! What is regulated, is the blood flow-rate. If we start doing some heavy work, the blood flow-rate has to be increased in the course to supply the muscles with more sugar and more oxygen. Then, the HR goes up, blood flow-rate goes up (it is primarily regulated value) and the BP goes up, sometimes at very high value (sex, lol) and for prolonged time. It is just a natural consequence of flow-rate regulation, nothing else. Of course, pharma industry has made a good business out of it. With lowering recommended BP values, they get more and more consumers...
Find out where they are getting their research money. It' ll just be a wheeze to get more people on meds. After a med has gone off patent the only way of still making good money off of it is to get more people taking it.
I honestly did not take too much notice, but obviously what you are saying is correct. I once asked my GP who decided what was the desirable blood pressure why and when, and she did not know !
Thank you for this interesting article. One thing at the end, using watch bp checks is recommended but my android watch advises against it for people with heart or stroke problems or are on meds. So tempting to use something just sitting there on my wrist.
I understand what you are saying,and thank you,but I'm only 63 and until this reading was consistent at 120/70 or 130/80. Wondering why suddenly change? Hopefully will settle down again.
How about your HR...? Body condition with increased BP usually goes together with lowered HR, what is very interesting. If "the pump" has reduced RPM (HR), than the blood flow-rate should get reduced and BP should go down. But the opposite happens - it goes up. Because of reduced blood flow-rate, you may feel "tired and not quite yourself".
So, a more interesting data would be your HR in the periods where you feel poorly. Is it lowered?
Many people on BP medication have reported that, at some moment in their life, they started having trouble with "non stable" BP. Indeed, after years spent on BP medication, natural BP regulation may get spoiled in such a degree, that the body has problems to regulate it. It is another reason why I refuse BP medication - I want to be sure that the problems originate from my body and not from chemicals with not fully known long term consequences. Try to find in the internet the article "Pfizer Recalling 3 Blood Pressure Medication Types Due To Cancer Concerns".
Of course, the question is what can be done...? In my case, limiting sitting in front of a computer from 10 hours a day to 0,5 hours a day, has greatly helped. Additionally, going out, moving around with transferring the attention from one thing to another (say walking through crowded streets) or doing relaxing tasks about the house (bringing the workshop in order, bringing the loft in order or similar) was also relaxing and of benefit. All of us suffer on overconcentration (cramp like), what leads to the penetration of the consciousness into autonomous nervous system. Hence most of the problems we have...
I've had similar problems- also over bank holidays! I had such fast heart rate after some meds that nearly got admitted to hospital. Cardiologist thinks it is the sudden change in my BP after taking meds that is the problem and that would fit in with you changing your dosage, We've agreed I should restart on low dosage and build up gradually He said the high rate is OK for several days and to be patient Hope this helps but do ask whoever is in charge of your meds for their advice as we are all different!!
quite interesting that your hr is so low and your bp so high and volatile. do you take something to lower hr? and yeah, during covid and after covid some days my bp would be 120/70.. and all of the sudden on any given day I would get a sinking feeling in my chest and gut, sweaty and clammy hands, weird intense head pressure, red and hot ears, very cold stiff feet, tons of palpitations at a normal hr of maybe 70-85 and I would check pressure on my own and in ER and it would clock at 185/110. then without meds just bisoprolol at a very low dose magically my bp would crash to 115/70!and I was left winded and with a fatigue and weakness. then I would be fine for a few days and all of the sudden again same weird adrenaline rush feeling while sitting or lying in bed, checked bp and it was volatile AGAIN. this went on for months, Drs still can't explain what covid or long covid does that messes up CNS receptors or adrenal receptors, and yeah they don't consider this an emergency.... apparently. what a shit show eh?
Interesting. We do know that the original strain of COVID operated my attaching to the ACE receptors in the body - which are related to our BP. They discovered by accident that high doses od Rampiril - one of the ACE inhibitors - helped to.hold the progress of the virus. Back in early 2020 I was on Ramipril and I reckon it saved me from the CO ID getting worse. I too has the ringing in my ears, dizziness and nausea plus am awful hemiplegia headache. No coughing though, so didn't realise at the time whT it was. Only found out later. Probably just as well - the fear we all felt at that time would've bumped my BP up further.
and btw, taking bp medication for months/years will pretty much set your body to have a specific bp reading for all your life. your body pretty much adjusts and becomes needy of medications for many people this is forever. few lucky folk have no issues but for most once you stop taking your bp meds or quit cold turkey oh yeah you are guaranteed to have a hypertensive crisis, and your bp will remain very high. because of the resistance and the routine the body builds towards the medicine. this is why I hate taking meds long term but sometimes there isn't a choice unfortunately
a few months ago my bp randomly hit something like 210/120 - can’t recall the exact amount. Saw gp same day, but had gone down to what he called ‘acceptable’ and he prescribed candersarten. I asked gp why my bp would suddenly do that and his answer was ‘it just happens’ . Not a good enough answer for me, but I know I wouldn’t get any more info from him 🤣 then about 3 months or so ago, after one month on the new med, I forgot to renew the script, and I had started to drink hibiscus tea am & pm. I was amazed, it was down to 120-124/60-70. I kept 2 weeks am & pm bp readings - seemed pretty consistent! My hr is managed by nebivolol. Hibiscus tea is an acquired taste, it’s a sour tea, and if you make it too strong it’s awful 🤪 But I like it. I only take the anticoagulants and the beta blocker nebivolol. …. A pack of candersarten on the shelf if needed. I feel a lot better with my resting bp lower. Guess I should tell my gp I stopped them 🥰 He also pushed me into statins - took them 6 days and never again. ….. my details at the surgery must be marked ‘difficult patient - non compliant’ 🤣🤣🤣🤣 If you decide to look at using hibiscus tea, check for interactions with any meds you are taking. I use the dried flowers as I don’t like the fillers in the capsules. X
That's very interesting! Will have to look at that. My sons say the same as you about me lol! They even said they will say in my funeral eulogy that the NHS is signing in relief! How very dare they!
when you reduce or stop taking lots of drugs you can get a rebound effect . So if you just stop taking a beta blocker your heart rate can shoot up higher than you have ever had before and with some people it can take weeks or months to settle. A drug which has been inhibiting something gets removed and it takes the body a while to take back control itself. Am not qualified to say that is what is happening to you , just putting it out there . Hope it gets better soon
BPis a strange system. I had been on medication for 10 years before my AF was diagnosed (symptomless and familial - it was really a matter of time before I was diagnosed- all my sisters have it). I spent a weekend in the cardio ward and the cardiologist considered my BP was too low, so he removed my BP meds. and just put me on 2.5mg Biso. In the matter of a couple of months it had shot up, and as I do not trust the accuracy of the home BP machines, to make sure, I visited my GP, who even taking into account my white coat syndrome, considered my BP to be too high. She phoned the Cardio who said I could go back on my original BP meds. At my next 6 monthly GP check, my usual GP was on leave, so I saw another of the partners who considered my BP too low and took away the Verapamil that was part of my BP meds.! I had already decided to reduce my Biso to 1.25mg because it made me so sleepy, so after a huff and a puff about interfering with my prescribed medication, she agreed that 1.25mg was right. So now I'm just taking that and 25mg Spiractin for swelling I get on the top of my feet and Equilis of course. I have 3 home BP machines and they all read something different! I am due my GP six monthly visit this month and my annual cardio in September, so I'll see what the verdict is then - it's quite fun for an 80 year old !!!!
Last winter my BP was happily reading around 135/82 after several years years of taking Canasartan. I had been unable to get a doctor's appointment since before Covid and it had been 3 years since I had a meds review. I decided I was taking too many pills (also on Rivaroxaban and Bisoprolol) - some 5years on from an Ablation which cured AF. So I stopped taking the Canasartan. My BP didn't seem to be affected - there were no noticeable effects and I never monitored the BP. Last month I changed doctors and was invited in for a new patient assessment. The nurse nearly fainted - My BP was 205/90. I have now gone back on Canasatan! The BP is going down slowly. But I wont do that again! I am 82 and ought to know better.
Sorry to hear you are having a few issues. My partner has been on anti- hypertensive medication for over forty years (he has essential hypertension). Every 2-3 years for some reason it just stops working and he has a hypertensive crisis necessitating a visit to A and E. They bring down his BP send him home 12 hours later with a change of medication and he’s as right as rain again. The docs say that they don’t know why it happens, but sometimes with some people it just does. Hopefully they can sort you out, without too many adjustments to your medication.
I so relate to this BP anxiety- it feels so out of our control doesn't it? Just to reassure you - I had mine rocketing to 176/105 back in 2020 (I think I had COVID) and am still here to tell the tale. I realise you were a bit higher and yes, you did the right thing by talking to your GP. Maybe there's an in-between dose you can take.The only other things I can offer are -
My BP always goes up if I have anything else going on with my health e.g. a cold, shingles, stomach upset, even summer allergies.
Poor sleep and stress also bump mine right up. And without reading the other responses I know people will be saying the same - if you stress about it your system will respond to that stress.
My husband has asked me to stop checking my BP. And I'm calmer.
interesting posts! Those readings were high! I agree with BP anxiety theory! One can worry themselves into a tis! I have the monitor, the watch and sometimes I think “throw it in the corner” and I have, but never away. I bring it back out , especially when feeling ill.
Currently, after my pace and ablate- They put me on amolopine (sp? Norvasc), bisoproplol, along with my Losartin. I can’t take all that in the am, I get headaches, flushing, zombie, need I say more. They are a low dose. I stopped taking my BP on the monitor. Heart Rate still at 100. My pace and ablate is another story!
I feel consoled knowing others have the same issues.
I finally got magnesium tartate- 400 mg. Do I add that to all the rest. I’ve resolved to get rid of that mix with natural alternatives, food and supplements. Love my outdoor walks! Tryouts to take one day at a time
Blood Pressure control is important, pharmacies are just (happily) responding to actual research. mayoclinic.org/diseases-con.... In my case, long term high blood pressure damaged my kidneys so I have to stay on a limited diet for the rest of my life. On the other hand, this vegan kidney diet sure improved my overall health, energy and blood pressure. Weight loss was key for me. I also wonder if you are more worked up than you acknowledge. Once you aren't worried, for whatever reason, it will benefit your bp.
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diagnosed with atrial fibrillation recently. 
Are there any sites that show you how to read an Alivecor ?
Return to Afib with a vengeance
Poorly and Fed Up........
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