Blood Pressure Medicine to Reduce Headaches

[SilverCharm]

I just got back from an 8 month follow-up appointment with my neurologist and he has prescribed blood pressure meds to reduce my headaches.

I wanted to know if anyone else has tried this or if they have even heard of it. Its been about 6 days since I started the BP meds and it seems to be working but it could be our good friend placebo taking effect.

My blood pressure is perfect but the doctor says by reducing my bp a little it may allow the capillaries in the brain to heal a little more and then I can reduce the daily tylenol regimine and then when I come off the bp medicine the headaches will stop and the tylenol (@6 a day currently) will not be necessary.

I haven't had any tylenol in two days.

Anyone have any thoughts.

[Jonad724]

That's interesting as I have had a headache down one side of my brain for 11 years now since a near fatal attack of viral meningitis. My neurologist told me that painkillers only work for 3 or 4 days then the brain gets used to them and stops producing endorphins so when they wear off its worse. This was certainly my experience. My BP is pretty low as I am a long distance triathlete (Half Ironman) but I'd be willing to give this a try. My doctor prescribed amitryptaline for the headache which is taken at night but just left me like a zombie for the next day. Really hope this works for you.

[SilverCharm in reply to Jonad724]

The doctor put me on verapomil and the normal dose is 3x a day for whatever mg's he gave me, but he wanted me to start with one pill a day for the first week and then bump up to two pills and then a full dose to see how it works and check on side effects.

After one week I have been two complete days without a tylenol. This is after a normal course of about 6-8 a day. Yesteday, my head hurt a few times but never enough to demand a tylenol.

My BP is really low as well(120/80), probably nowhere near as low as a triathlete's but the idea of this is to see if it works for me without lowering my BP very much and then as soon as I don't need the tylenol anymore, come off the BP meds.

Neurologist told me this is a treatment for migraines but usually, the 5th or 6th option for migraines. I don't have migraines but the headaches I described to him sounded like the capillaries were causing pressure on places in the brain that were not used to it and that's what was causing me pain.

I think it would be worth a try for you.

[ignoreit]

Wow, that's really interesting, SilverCharm! I had BM 35 yrs ago, spent the first 25 years with headaches about 4 days a week... and now have had daily headaches for the last 10 years. One Excedrin Extra Strength helps tremendously.

My headaches are NEVER throbbing...they're always just one dull pain, usually on the right side of my face from my neck up to the top of my head. (Rarely the headache's on both sides.) Anyone else have similar non-throbbing headaches as a BM after effect??

[SilverCharm in reply to ignoreit]

35 years. Wow. I cannot imagine. Excedrin is acetaminephin or aspirin?

Mine have been non-throbbing headaches that are just dull and annoying and ocasionally (sp) debilitating. However, my wife and my assistant both know when I am having one and when I haven't taken any medicine for it. Both of them will look at me and ask if I'm having a headache. Usually, I say yes and then I will take someothing for it.

Mine are located mostly in the back and base of the head and then my head would hurt if I bent over to pick something up off the floor or most recently when I tried to play golf which I used to play alot. Head hurt so bad from hitting a ball it really made golf NOT fun. Sneezing and coughing are bad too. But recently about 1out of every 2 or 3 sneezes are painless. Improvement. And the painful ones don't hurt as bad.

Anyway, I seem to be doing better. I hope this can help someone else, that would be great.

[ignoreit]

Over-the-Counter Excedrin Extra Strength is

1. Acetaminophen 250 mg

2. Aspirin 250 mg

3. Caffeine 65 mg

It's this combination that works so well for me, altho I doubt that taking one every single day is smart for my future health...but it relieves my headache pain now!

I don't have a problem bending over or playing golf, I also take 11 hours of VERY energetic jazz & tap dancing classes per week w/o prompting a headache. My headaches just suddenly appear everyday...always unexpectedly...at different times. (In 35 yrs I've never been able to figure out a correlation to ANYTHING I do or eat.)