Nocturnal hypertension

[phebamom]

New to site. 66 years of age, farm wife, 5,9 tall, weight 154#. Over the last two years I have lost 30#. I watch my sodium intake, and try to watch sugar. i have an auto-immune illness called giant cell arteritis/polymyalgia rheumatica. I have been on prednisone for 10 years. I have tapered to my lowest dose. I am on 5mg. of prednisone. I was placed on a biologic called Actemra to help me get disease under control and get off prednisone. For me, 5mg. is a milestone so I thought things would start looking up. I also take 5mg. of BuSpar for anxiety. It works great for anxiety. I was on 1-1/2 pills of Valsartan per day for high blood pressure. On higher doses of prednisone and higher weight my bp ran in the 180s over 100s. Since reducing prednisone I was able to get down to 1/2 Valsartan per day. The dose is 80/12.5. My BP started bottoming out, reading in the low 90s over the low 60s. I can barely walk across a room when my BP is that low. So, tried to stop the pill for a couple of days. Huge mistake. Now BP is out of control and I have developed Nocturnal hypertension. I am now on one full Valsartan at bed time. My BP goes up only when I sleep. I wake up in the high 140s over 100s. Over the course of the morning it drops dramatically, usually into the 100s over 60s. this is without any medication. I only take one Valsartan at bed time and it does nothing to lower BP at night. I plan to take recorded BP stats to my primary doctor later this week. Does anyone else have nocturnal hypertension. Any thoughts on what may be causing it. I try to sleep as cool as I can, but if I can't keep my legs warm they hurt. I eat no food after 7 in the evening, and take a prevacid for stomach issues from prednisone. I am wondering if the Prevacid could be causing the nocturnal hypertension.

[Happyrosie]

This does sound hard, phebamon. I’ve nothing to suggest other than a chat with your pharmacist. I don’t know whether you are in the UK. If you are, a medication check is routinely supplied by pharmacists. You might need to make an appointment.

[phebamom in reply to Happyrosie]

We have no such service here in the US. I am kind of on my own as far as side effects go. I plan to stop the Prevacid and see if the Nocturnal Hypertension improves. I will post again after I give it three days or so. Prednisone causes high blood pressure, so does the Actemra, and I recently learned Prevacid can cause heart damage, so I guess it is back to Pepcid. I just started taking Magnesium with meals. I am hopeful that will help also.

[phebamom]

Update: BP this morning was 128/78, pulse 78/ wow. I made two changes. I stopped taking Prevacid and switched to one low dose Pepcid AC, and I started taking Magnesium Malate 3 times a day. Will update as I learn more.