Blood pressure pills causing fatigue

[Rosalba]

my husband has just started taking blood pressure pills and is experiencing serious fatigue

[bantam12]

They do cause fatigue but he has to give himself time to adjust to them, if it doesn't settle then ask GP to try a different one.

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

My blood pressure tablet hasn't caused me fatigue, I suppose it's down to the individual and which blood pressure tablet has been prescribed.

There is a blood pressure support forum here on HealthUnlocked, it might be helpful for you to post on there:

healthunlocked.com/blood-pr...

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Does your husband have a thyroid problem too?

[Rosalba in reply to SlowDragon]

not that I'm aware of

[Marz]

Sometimes the pills are known to lower the blood pressure too much. Oxygen is transported around the body by attaching to iron in the red blood cells. Less oxygen being transported could lead to fatigue.

Did he have B12 - Folate - Ferritin and VitD tested before being prescribed blood pressure tablets. Docs often jump to the prescription pad before checking out underlying causes. Worth checking the Thyroid correctly too

[Rosalba in reply to Marz]

thanks - I will check all of this out with him.

[Marz in reply to Rosalba]

Good idea ! Always obtain copies of all your results with ranges - so you can monitor your own progress and check what has been missed !

Over the years the cholesterol levels have been lowered and lowered so that more and more people can be prescribed a statin - sigh ! The same has happened with BP meds. We need to be aware ... raised blood pressure is a symptom rather than an illness. Does he take any other meds ?

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to Marz]

Sometimes the pills are known to lower the blood pressure too much.

Yes, when mine were prescribed, I was told to take them at bedtime in case they lowered it too much and I - well, collapsed I suppose!

[Marz in reply to SeasideSusie]

Really hope you don't collapse ! - or if you do then we hope Dr Kendrick is there to assist and explain 😎 I think he was the source of my info !

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to Marz]

I've been fine on them Marz, no problems, no side effects, but I do still take them at night. Besides being told to do that when prescribed, I've read it somewhere else that BP meds are better taken at night but I can't remember why.

[Marz in reply to SeasideSusie]

Makes sense to take them at night ... am sure the advice will help OP too ...

[humanbean]

If you haven't already got one, buy a blood pressure monitor of the type that a doctor would use i.e. one with an upper arm cuff. It's important to buy a cuff of the right size.

I have a basic BP monitor by Omron and this is a make I've seen in doctor's surgeries.

I would suspect that your husband's BP and possibly his pulse is dropping too low.

I was prescribed beta blockers to deal with tachycardia (heart rate of about 150). I can't remember the exact numbers now, but my BP dropped to something like 93/50 and I had a pulse rate of 47. I couldn't cope with that - it made me feel very, very weak.

Oh, and the other problem I had was that the effect of each dose lasted longer than 24 hours, so each day I took a pill I was making my problem worse.

[Fruitandnutcase]

I’ve never had any problems and I also have my own BP monitor - I get white coat syndrome otherwise. I take readings and every now and again my GP calls and asks me to bring them down.

To get best results don’t talk while taking a reading, sit quietly, wait five minutes then repeat, wait another five minutes repeat again then take an average of the three results. I usually read while I’m waiting.

[Rosalba in reply to Fruitandnutcase]

Thanks to all for this advice - he's got his own monitor which he's using but I'll give him your advice about allowing longer in between.

[Fruitandnutcase in reply to Rosalba]

Yes, I discovered that when I took part in a pre-diabetes trial. The machine that the nurse used was set to take a reading every five minutes and that was where I discovered that you should not talk while the reading was being taken. The thing is that even when you tell your doctor / nurse you don’t want to. Speak during it you can sense that they are waiting for the reading to be over so that they can talk - which raises your BP anyway and the chances of an average reading are absolutely zilch.