I am a 72 y.o. male in good health; have had hypertension for 30+ years, well-controlled with Benicar 40 mg (angiotension response blocker).
Suddenly, literally overnight, my BP wel from ~ 130/74 to 180/110. Even after adding amlodipine 10 mg my BP is still high.
Anyone have any guesses as to what could be going on? My doc is sending me for a kidney artery scan in a few days.
Some foods can interfere with blood pressure medicine like aged cheese
g.90572, in this case, that can definitely be ruled out. And IAC, the spike was very large, I think larger than would have been caused by any food.
That is most interesting as I feel to have had a similar problem. I'm interested to hear what other comments people make.
I'm a 74 yr old female and have been on BP meds for 3+ years. Mine has been stable on 50mg of Losartan for most of this time but has been prone to unexplained spikes which last a few days then drop back again. For almost a month now my BP has started to rise worryingly although not quite to your level. My average over a week has risen from 125<> to 137> with spikes of up to 163. Diastolic average is about 80, but there have been spikes of over 100.
The odd thing is that for all the 3 years I have taken medication it has risen every September then dropped back again by mid/late October and stayed more or less at the same level until the next September. 12 months ago I was on just 25 mg of Losartan then had a 6 month check up and it was 143/90 [averaged over 8 days]so the dose was raised to 50 mg.
I'm due soon for another check up and hope the BP will have dropped back again otherwise I feel I might have the dose raised again or another pill introduced. .
It may be that BP in most people rises or falls at different times of year (i.e. at the same time of year, for most people). I would do some research on this at pubmed.gov.
If my memory serves me correctly, I took losartan for a short time years ago, but it did not protect me for 24 hours.
After a long time on any medication you may need to boost your nutrition. Also watermelon has arginine which lowers blood pressure
I don't know if the comment about watermelon is accurate or not, but before anyone regards it as correct, it would be a good idea to do some serious research on it.
My hunch is that it is inaccurate--because if it were accurate, (a) by now everyone would know about it, and (b) some company would be selling a watermelon extract.
I'll check that website, could be revealing. It's interesting that you say you did not feel Losartan protected you for 24 hrs as I had wondered about that myself. It is though a similar ARB so I would have thought they would all have worked the same way? - no?
Different ARBs work *basically* the same, but often with significant, sometimes subtle differences.
Pubmed.gov is the website for medical literature; you will have to search it, but that's easy.
Typically the BP has dropped back as it has done at this time of year since I was diagnosed; early days still - but from a spike of 163/79 a few days ago it went down to 98/66. I really don't understand why this happens.
From what I've read, it appears that lots of stuff re BP is a big mystery. Kidney involvement of various types--polycystic kidney disease, renal artery stenosis, etc--is often suspected; but it seems to me that these spikes are a very big mystery. The fact that a spike often disappears quickly suggests to me that it's something that the pt is doing, e.g. something the pt is eating--but then again, if that were true, most pts would be aware of something. And these spikes seem to me to be waaaaay bigger than something like salt.
I do keep a diary of BPreadings [2 first thing and 2in the evening] and have done for over 3 years now.The dr says it's unnecessary and I only need to write them down for a week before a check up - twice a year. However I prefer to do it my way! The point I'm making is that if I didn't I wouldn't be aware of these large fluctuations.
I wish I knew what caused these spikes and equally the sudden drops, because those make me feel quite light headed. Certainly it's not salt or alcohol as I gave these up 3 years ago and I'm not overweight either, or diabetic or any of the usual factors. And I don't/won't take statins either.
The mysteries of the human body!