Hello all,
Wondered if anyone had any advice, I went to GP over a year ago and had extremely high bloodpressure! Was put on amlodipine but had nightmare side affects so changed to ramapril! My GP said my BP was stress related after loads of different tests, after much discussion agreed to take citalopram for my anxiety, I am so traumatised from the High BP as I had to stay at docs for over an hour and she checked my eyes as I think she was checking if I had stroke symptoms! I have been very stressed in the past but over the last yr I have learnt to do relaxation, do yoga weekly, have reflexology, don't drink much, exercise regularly, eat well but do smoke! I take my BP at home and when I am relaxed it is fine but I panic when I see the machine and then if the reading is high I have a panic attack! I get dizziness when I lay down and worry if this is my blood pressure. Have to do my BP at home to get readings for my GP but so worried! Help
Try not to worry...this will only increase the BP. You might get White Coat Syndrome ie. you worry when you see the Doctors macine.
I think this, making you sit in the waiting room for a while, is normal if they get a very high reading,
Ask for a different type of BP medication. They have plenty they can try, I have tried 11 at last count !!
Try not to worry.
Hi, poor old you eh. All I can really say is you need to calm down a bit and really try not to worry. I can tell you the general census of opinion is to consume beetroot in any form. I made a smoothie with everything in it to heal high bp apparently. Give it a try.
1 beetroot sliced and diced; 1 avacado cut up small (preferably a soft one);
1 cup of pineapple cut up small; 1 banana; 1 cup of fresh orange juice;
2 cups of almond milk; As I have a bit of a sweet tooth I put 5 sweeteners ina cup with a little hot water to melt them.
I then put the whole lot in a smoothie maker and pressed the button. That lot makes 1 litre of which I have a mug a day. I have switched to almond milk instead of semi skimmed and eat more fish. It seems to be working for me so why not give it a tr. I know it sounds pretty disgusting but honestly it's not a bad taste at all. Most important of all try to relax more and maybe get a bit of excercise. Good luck with it all.
Rob.
All sounds familiar to my story I take it you are over 55years old to be taking amlodipine. I have been taking this for about 9 months now. The side effects have been awful but I am too scared to go back to the
gp as I don't want to start with another tablet in case this is worse I have heard such horror stories about side effects
Hi Margaret, no I am 36 yrs old, I recommend that you go to your docs , don't be scared, I had a terrible time on amlodipine and so have others! It is banned in most countries and only used in veterinary practice! You don't have to take anything you don't want to, pls go and talk to your GP
I recommend you try a low fat/low sugar/low salt diet as recommended by slimming world. I had similar problems on amlododipine, most of which stopped within a few days of stopping the medication. I was put on a different tablet but my bp was still too hight. Now with no medication but on the new healthy eating regime, also taking 100 ml beetroot juice with water once a day, my bp is lower than ever and I have lost a stone in weight in 8 weeks. This is all in agreement with my dr and I regularly check my BP at home and at the dr's surgery.
Try not too worry and make that appointment and go back...they have loads and loads of BP tablets they can try....tell them you want nothing that makes your limbs swell and ache, or give you a cough. Good luck...Be Brave.
Hi Hails. You appear to be doing a lot right. I am on ramipril and have been for a few years. No visible side effects but have twice yearly blood tests to check kidneys are OK. Interestingly my 95 year old mother has recently been prescribed citalopram as she was getting panic attacks and they appear to be working for her. Obviously if you can stop smoking it would be a great help. Is your weight/height ratio OK? If you are overweight then losing weight will also help. However the most important thing for you at this time is to overcome your anxiety when that cuff is on your arm. I suffer from a similar problem and put the cuff on my arm but don't inflate it. I sit comfortably like that for about 10 mins, or more sometimes, until I feel the anxiety fade. I empty my mind of everything and then hit the inflate button! Not always successful but better than how I used to do it!! Good luck.
I have tried making some of your smoothie today and just have to say it's delicious! Hopefully it'll help lower my blood pressure to a level where I can reduce or even stop my medications, but if not then I'm sure I'll gain other the health benefits from the fruit and vegetables. Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to another glass of the smoothie tomorrow morning.
Thanks! 
Now we need a company to make it into an instant drink:-)
There will be one that does not give you side efects. I have tried nine different ones and only two did not have bad side effects. They were Losartan and Verapamil. I can't take verapamil now as it slows my already slow heart rate.
Do you have a link to reports of Amlodopine being banned for humans?
It fell out of favour in the UK for a long time but is making a comeback.
Thanks derek, may go back to GP to discuss, I got information from Internet on amlodipine and it's effect! I found a document where the drug had been banned for causing neurological problems and depression and very scary high number of people taking their own lives whilst on the drug, it's all on the Internet. I had a horrible time on this drug ! Have you had this drug?
Good on you Karen. Glad you like it. Keep a recoed of your bp. I take mine twice daily. Once around 9am ish and again around 7ish. A goodmonitor to buy is the Kinetik upper arm monitor around £20. Just google it. Don't buy one called the Prologic PL100. Very inaccurate. The KinetiK get really good reviews in which etc.
It was the first one I was given in 2000 along with Atenolol. They were quite effective but I pleaded to be taken off them after two months due to side effects. Some I had after that were even worse!
Cardiologists tried to put me back on Amlodipine from time time but I refused. Some tried to tell me that it was the Atenolol that caused most of the side effects.
How high is your BP? You do of course know the best thing to do...NO SMOKING and look at the money you will save. I used to put the money saved away every week and within the year had two weeks in Hong Kong and China followed by a week on Safari n Zimbabwe and Botswana.
Blimey Derek.......how many fags were you smoking?!!! Great way to save for hols!
Your reply to Derek did made me chuckle!
I can't remember how much cigarettes cost when I stopped in 1993. We don't do expensive package holidays we find our own deals. Zimbabwe/Botswana was in March very off peak as it was the rainy season and the flights and hotels were dirt cheap and we arranged our own land and river safaris locally.
Now a 20 a day smoker at £8.47 a packet would save £3091 a year. Imagine if the smoker added that to his pension contributions. More recently we had a month in New Zealand for £4700 for the two of us and a bit less for a month in Australia.
We have been missing you here Mrs O. I expected you to reply in another conversation about garlic in Blood Pressure Up where Chrissy wondered what it would do to her love life.
Ooh, I missed that post, Derek. I have tried to flit in and out of the forum over the last few weeks but life has been so hectic, what with son's wedding just 3 days before Christmas, then being 'in charge' of Christmas Day, then exciting news that we will become grandparents in July. Plus helping members of my support group. It's all been so overwhelming that I was sent home from my GP referral session at the gym yesterday when the instructor checked my BP and found it to be 200/87. Felt really depressed although I suppose I sort of expected it but had shied away from taking a reading at home. It seems even good stress affects BP, well mine anyway - not to mention the salt from the Christmas gammon, far too many chocolates (caffeine?) etc etc. Back on good diet from yesterday, including daily beetroot, garlic, celery and almonds, and just over half hour walks each day.
I'm loving the sound of Rob's smoothie though - got all the ingredients here apart from almond milk and pineapple.
Off to look for Chrissy's post now!