Lercanidipine 20mg

[taylor414]

My meds for high blood pressure have recently been increased from lercanidipine 10mg to 20mg and i am finding that the higher dosage gives me increased heart rate which does calm down later in the day. I have started breaking the 20mg tablet in 2 and taking half in the morning and the other half later in the day which seems to be better for me.

reading the descriptions for lercanidipine it implies to only take i dose a day, does anyone have any advice as to me breaking the 20mg dose in 2 ??

I would ask my GP but it is not easy to get a simple message over to them !!

Thank you all in advance for responding

Richard

[Madlegs1]

The latest practice for when a BP med isn't working well enough is to combine it with a different one. Possibly of a different type.Rather than just upping the current one and increasing the risk of worsening side effects. As you are discovering!😝

Maybe you could email your doctor asking about this strategy, or ask your pharmacist about splitting the tablet.

Good luck.

[taylor414 in reply to Madlegs1]

Thank you for that reply , sounds like good advice !!👍

[BobbyCollins in reply to Madlegs1]

That's right I have been told this by Cardiologist this week. All the research shows this but after two years of problems my dosage was doubled and BP increased considerably. On different meds now. Good luck Richard!

[Happyrosie]

as Madlegs has said.

Also, if you are in the UK, many doctors practices employ a pharmacist but they don’t seem to mention this on their practice leaflets. Your practice may do so. You just contact the receptionist(or “care navigator” as they are called ) and ask. The pharmacist is probably easier to get hold of than a gp, though you might still have to make a phone appointment

[Pedge]

I had the exactly the same on Lercanidipine, and when going up to 20 even more so, doctor said if i wanted I could go back to amlodipine lower dose and increase my ramipril. Didn’t seem worried about the increase in hr but I wasn’t happy about it. Hope you find a solution soon

[Collywobbles64]

hi, I’ve recently started the lion diet and had to stop my bp medication as my bp is now 90/66 from 150/98.

[Sleepyholllow in reply to Collywobbles64]

Hello, can I ask what the Lion diet is please

Thanks

[Collywobbles64 in reply to Sleepyholllow]

It’s an elimination diet that involves beef, water and sea salt. It is a carnivore way of eating. There is lots of information about it on you tube - see dr Ken berry, dr charffie (I think that is how it’s spelled) dr Jason fung, he’s a kidney doctor who does a lot on intermittent fasting. I also have ms and there are at least 5 people who have reversed their symptoms by going carnivore.

[Sleepyholllow in reply to Collywobbles64]

Wow! Won't work for me, vegetarian but thanks anyway

[PecanSandie]

From the instructions:

Adults: the recommended dose is 10 mg once daily, at the same time each day, preferably in the morning at least 15 minutes before breakfast. Your doctor may advise you to increase the dose to one Lercanidipine HCl 20 mg daily, if needed. (see section 2 “Lercanidipine HCl with food, drink and alcohol”).

Lercanidipine HCl 10 mg: the score line is only to facilitate breaking for ease of swallowing and not to divide into equal doses.

Lercanidipine HCl 20 mg: the tablet can be divided into equal doses.

The tablets should preferably be swallowed whole with some water.

[Sleepyholllow]

hello Taylor414

I also take Lercanidipine, it was recently increased to 20 mg, but because of the side effects of the single dose (same as yours). I asked the GP to prescribe 10mg packs and I take one 10mg in the morning and one in the evening. I am findin this so work reasonably well.

Perhaps your GP would do this for you, the increased heart rate prob subsides after a while, hopefully worth a try.

Hope you get sorted out.

Kind regards

[taylor414 in reply to Sleepyholllow]

Hello Sleepyhollow

I was pleased to read your reply to my post and you seem to have come to a similar conclusion as myself !

I have found breaking a 20mg tablet in half and taking half in the morning and the other in the early afternoon improves my tolerance. I have also tried taking 2 x 10mg tablets instead of 1 x 20mg tablet in the morning and this also gave me less side effects. However this has only been a one time application (I have only been on the 20mg dose now for 2 weeks !)

I think you are correct pointing out that i will gradually get used to the increased dose and i believe that breaking the 20mg dose down in the initial stages helps this.

I am just cautious about organising my day at the moment as if i have a social appointment on any particular day i will split the dose morning/afternoon to avoid the unpleasant elevated heart rate .

Kind Regards

Richard👍

[Sleepyholllow in reply to taylor414]

Yes it is truly horrendous especially if your in a social setting, lercanidipine is the third med I have tried in the last five yrs since diagnosis, and all of them had horrendous side effects, this one is the best of a bad lot in my opinion.

I too am Only on the 20 mg dose for past couple of weeks so it's new enough, I'm tryin to practice mind over matter and get on with the day, the heart rate does subside,

I hope it works for you, GP approach is v crucial in my opinion, my gp who I'd attended for 30 yrs retired before Xmas and I was curious as to his replacement's approach, I'm so pleasantly surprised, it's a young woman with a very practical holistic approach, really makes me more at ease resulting in better numbers when I'm there. It was she that suggested splitting the dose "whatever works for you" is her motto. My previous gp was quite rigid, therefore made me nervous, it's all part of it.

Good luck ! It's deffo not easy to get the balance,

[Madlegs1 in reply to Sleepyholllow]

That's really good to hear!👍

[Orladog]

Hello taylor414

I have been taking lercanidipine 20mg for over a year now (following an unexpected BP crisis), initially to replace amlodipine which I couldn't tolerate. I was also given ramipril and then losartan as a second medication which had horrible side effects and which I stopped taking. In comparison the side effects of lercanidipine seemed very mild - some heart palpitations and sometimes hot flushes at night. However after a month or so these side effects decreased and then disappeared entirely. I think it's a pill that it's worth sticking with to see if the side effects decrease.

[Sleepyholllow in reply to Orladog]

Hello Orlando

Yes would deffo agree with you, it takes a bit of time and perseverance,

Kind regards

[Holiday12345]

hi I’ve been taking lercanidipine for past year and had been through 11 before that. I started 10mg morning and slowly added another 1/4 tablet evening up to 1/2 tab in evening. Seemed ok initially but now getting the high heart rate, severe facial flushing and sudden onset swelling of veins on back of my hands which is very painful and I started getting severe nose bleeds. Only now after a year has my cardio said it’s the tablets and to reduce dose to 10mg. But im still getting the problems. My bp has been found to be caused by secondary hyper aldosterone high aldesterone and high renin. But im not sure if tablet is causing this. I think they’re going to try me on the eplerenone (?) next