I was on 5mg Amlodipine for yrs and didn't notice significant side effects except for lack of energy and general feeling of fatigue. Following a spell of stress when my BP increased my Doc prescribed Ibersartan , then weeks later increased the Amlodipine to 10mg Since then I have had really bad tendonitis - with the pain creeping up to my calves at times. Acupuncture helped a little but it's still there on the tendons, and like many others the swollen ankles etc. Energy levels are low and I have a general lack of enthusiasm for anything. Is there an alternative to this medication?
There are many BP medications and combinations of them which are possible. The only way to move forward is in discussion with your GP.
Hello peta, all I would say is talk to your GP asap and try a different combination. When my hubby's Amlodipine was increased from 5 to 10mg he too acquired the swollen ankles. His GP then reduced the Amlodipine down to 5mg and added in a low dose of Ramipril since when he has been fine.
I'm a different kettle of fish, having suffered very swollen ankles on just a baby dose of Amlodipine and within a couple of months developed a rash on the lower legs diagnosed as varicose eczema. Was switched to Rampipril which made me feel unwell. Diltiazem was tried but swelling recurred albeit over a longer period. Losartan was added but I finally pleaded to be taken off the Diltiazem due to the severe ankle swelling and a bowel problem, considered by the pharmacist to be down to a combination of the two pills but more likely to be from the Diltiazem. Immediately on stopping the Diltiazem one of my toes swelled and became very red and sore - gout and infection have been ruled out but am now about to have my arteries scanned. My body doesn't like any of the pills it seems, although am about to add yet another pill to the Losartan! I'm a lost cause as far as treating my BP is concerned! I do hope you fare better.
Thanks for the info - hope they find a resolution for you quickly.
We're often told that a major cause of hypertension is being over weight. How many in this discussion are over-weight?
Hello Petra
I was also prescribed Amlodipine 5mg tablets, which I took for 8 weeks, Both my legs and ankles started to swell and a very sore and red rash appeared on my left ankle.
The swelling became so severe that I couldn’t move my feet up or down so walking became very difficult. The rash became very itchy and flaky like eczema which spread from my left angle to my knee.
I took myself off Amlodpine and went with out any medication for 4 weeks, in which my blood pressure began to rise again and my legs and ankles stayed the same
My GP prescribed Losartan 25mg two weeks ago, and my blood pressure is going down very slowly, but my legs are still very swollen so I have been put on Furosemide 20mg (Diuretic) to try and reduce the water in my legs.
One leg has gone down near to normal size but but my left leg is still swollen with the eczema type rash, on which I am using E45 cream to keep it moisturized .
I have a feeling that the new medication will have to be increased before I see any great affect on the swollen legs.
As you see my GP hasn’t got it right yet so I hope your GP can find the medication that works for you
Was ANYBODY feeling bad BEFORE they were given these meds?
Did ANYONE go to the Dr. complaining of a pain that was releived by any of these MEDS?
They prescribe these after the FIRST THING THEY DO is to take your blood pressure.
It is NEVER in response to a specific problem the alleged high blood pressure is causing.
I think this whole high blood pressure/big pharama meds thing is a big scam.
And the Dr. shouting out "you'll blow a vessel!"
is what it is, just the Dr. using more scare tatics on you.
There is HARD EVIDENCE that some HBP meds DO "blow a vessel!"
Louise, I was told by a consultant a few years ago that for every stone of weight lost, the BP could reduce by up to 10%. At 5ft.4in, and weighing 10 stone, I do just come into the 'normal' range - I doubt whether losing weight would help my BP. Salt can be another factor, but I don't add any salt to my food and don't eat any processed foods which can contain a lot of salt.
I felt as fit as a fiddle before a chance visit to my GP showed up I had high blood pressure.
I have felt terrible ever since being prescribe blood pressure medication and my quality of live is slowly being eroded. But the big question is do we carry on or risk going out in blaze of glory?
I'm 5 ft 4in, too. My hypertension started when I was 8st 10lbs. I'd like to be that again, though!
Yes, go back to your GP and try something different. I found Valsartan to be really good and with no side effects. Each person is different though.
I do wonder about it, Hitch. My aunt and grandmother both had high BP, but lived into their eighties.
I am surprised that a diuretic was not surprised alongside amlodipine to prevent water accumulation in ankles. My wife has been taking Amloc 5 (or Pendine 5) while Spiractin (Spironolactone, a potassium-sparing diuretic) was added once her ankles started swelling. This solved the problem.
I am surprised that a diuretic was not surprised alongside amlodipine to prevent water accumulation in ankles. My wife has been taking Amloc 5 (or Pendine 5) while Spiractin (Spironolactone, a potassium-sparing diuretic) was added once her ankles started swelling. This solved the problem.
Sorry for the mistake in my previous comment. It should have been "prescribed alongside amlodipine".
It sounds like a typical pyramid building; one drug to counteract the effects of the others.
The best way of reducing BP, according to research, is to exercise and lose weight. In a report to the Royal College, a leading orthopaedic surgeon (a lady, forget her name but I've got it here somewhere) said exercise should be labelled as the miracle drug.
There's a lady in my gym who suffers severely from osteoporosis and arthritis and other nasties, who was told she would be in a wheelchair within 10 years, so to expect it and to adapt to it. She has to take hugely strong pain killers. But she's not in a wheelchair. She 'gymns' 5 days a week.
Louise, you are right in the sense that unless your high blood pressure was not due to some already existing chronic organ failure, it is best to try to reduce it by natural means. If however, this is not the case, then there are proven medicinal protocols how to lower it The first line of treatment is usually just a diuretic and if this is insufficient, it is possible to add others. I don't wish to write a treatise on BP medication, but it is not true that one would be using one drug to counteract the effects fo another. There are sound biochemical reasons why a particular drug is prescribed, even as an adjuvant to one previously prescribed, like for instance adding an ACE inhibitor to a diuretic. Yet nothing is more promising than a lifestyle, proper exercise and healthy nutrition started at a young age. A healthy body can regenerate itself without drugs. It is unfortunate that our present adult lifestyle, the thoroughly polluted environment, the sharply reduced nutritional content of even basic foodstuffs and the strong pesticides are very difficult to fight against.The countless "diets"
advertised was a panacea also don't help. But I would still not discount rproper medicaton by qualified and experienced phycians and pharmacologists.
Have you read Dr Ellen Langer's bookk, Counterclock wise'? She describes an experiment where she and her team took a group of older men fom a care home back into the ambience of the 1950s - very authentically done. One group was to immerse itself in the life (living independently) and the other was to reminisce on how it used to be in those days for them. (|They used separate houses and divided the men into two groups). After a week the 'immersed' group looked physically younger and were measurably 'younger' too: improved eyesight, reduced symptoms, independent walking, sharper cognition, abd - reduced blood
pressure, and more.
I'm not sure about 'proven' medical protocols for BP - protocols, yes, but proven? BP is notoriously difficult to address effectively.
No one can blame you for not "believing" in BP medication. Perhaps a good textbook could enlighten you about the specific physiological and biochemical reasons for using anti-hypertensive drugs. As I've said before if you have a complex set of organ failure symptoms, that is, several reasons contribute to high BP, then obviously it becomes an intractable problem. First you must understand the connections between the circulatory system and the renal sytem both of which could contain reasons for high BP. Multiple reasons which cause high BP (or even too low BP) can become problematic when trying to select anti-hypertensive drugs. Perfectly healthy people can have high BP and have so-called essential hypertension without any specific organ damage. In such cases - which accordng to medical liteature are the majority of high BP sufferers, BP medication is most effective.
I'm a cognitive behavioural therapist; constantly researching and interviewing neuroscientists, physicians etc;, and write books on dementia (Lion Monarch.) Looking for things that affect the brain - depression (slows blood flow ... etc ) I do know about the renal system and other factors that affect BP. My own BP is high - idiopathic ... but I know I'm a hot reactor and it spikes. Treating BP is like fishing for snakes in a well.