When do you take your medication?

I’m tackling HBP at the moment, I was on 5mg Lisinopril but it didn’t seem to be having much affect, so my Doctor upped the dose to 10mg.

I normally take my pill with my morning coffee but yesterday I took my readings for the day to update my Doctor and when I woke up it was 111/78

I took three readings in the evening ranging from 141/77 initially down to 130/84 before bedtime

This morning it’s back low again. I’ll take more readings today before submitting them to the doctor for next steps.

Is it a silly question to ask when the ideal time to take my pill is? Or am I doing it right?

[springcross]

Hi Captinterceptor. I am on a different med to you but I used to take mine on the morning but now I take it after my evening meal. The best thing to do is to check out the leaflet, it should say on there.

[Hidden in reply to springcross]

Ummm ah well ummm I was never one for following instructions ha ha 😬

[Happyrosie]

There is in fact an ongoing survey among BP medication takers to see whether in fact morning or evening is best. You might think it best to take it when convenient to you, when you won’t forget it, and wait for the the results of the survey which will be published eventually, and GPS will get to hear about it. Saying that, the survey has already been going for three years or so, and I don’t know when it’s due to end.

[Hidden in reply to Happyrosie]

Ah thank you, will try and find it, just keen to find a consensus given my BP is higher in the evenings. Thank you

[Happyrosie in reply to Hidden]

The survey isn’t finished and wont be be published until then - it won’t be online yet.

Some researchers did a very tiny survey last year concluding that evening is best, but the doctors leading the survey that I’m contributing to say it’s not a well constructed survey and no one should read anything into it.

[Hidden in reply to Happyrosie]

These things take time I guess to get a good cross representation of users. I know it’s not one size fits all by any means but I’m certainly curious to see the results

[pinosolady]

I used to take mine in the morning but found it caused an upset stomach. I was also getting high evening readings. Changed to taking it just before my evening meal and the results are much better. Figures don´t vary much from day to day so only check once or twice a week now. Give it a go for a reasonable amount of time and see which is best for you.

[dizzielizzie1]

Hi there-- I am not on the same BP meds as yourself ( I take 100mg Losartan) but I had the same problem. I would take my BP in the morning and it would be fine, but if I took it after 9pm it would have gone up, quite a bit. I take two 50mg tablets a day now and have found that taking one at 9am and another at 9pm keeps my BP in the normal range all day long. My pharmacist says that I should be able to take 100mg once a day, in the evening, but I get better results from taking it twice a day. I believe that a one size fits all approach isn't necessarily right for everyone, when it comes to taking medication and you have to find out what works for your own body's metabolism. Hope you manage to solve your problem but remember--what is OK for me might not be right for you. However, you could suggest to your doctor that you change how you take your medication.

[Hidden in reply to dizzielizzie1]

Thank you, I submitted my results to him, another doctor picked them up though with my question about when to take and suggested that I could take it in the evening