For those who have high BP | Arthritis Information

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What med did your doc give you to help lower it?  My doc gave me lisinopril.  When I got home I realized that the pharmacy didn't put in the info paper with it that they usually do.  I googled it to find that this med (which is an ACE inhibitor) is not recommended for people with connective tissue diseases like lupus and RA.  

 
Does anyone else take this and have you had any problems with it so far?
I guess my best option is going to be to call my rheumatologist tomorrow and ask her what the safest class would be to take with my RA drugs.
 
thanks
Bob H.
I take atenolol 100/mg/chlorthal 25mg. A half a tablet a day.
I'm surprised your pharmacist did not catch this and say something.
Definitely call your rd. Let us know.
take care
You shouldn't take ACE inhibitors with NSAIDs - the combination can harm your kidneys.  My husband took it for a while, but later switched to an ARB (similar to ACE inhibitors but its action is further up the metabolic pathway) due to the ACE-inhibitor cough he got from the lisinopril.  Other than the annoying dry cough, he suffered no ill effects. Here's the problem with the pharmacy.  (and it's totally my fault but I'm fixing it now)  The place that I got my lisinopril filled is where I get my Enbrel only, a local mom and pop pharmacy.  I get the nsaids and everything else at a Wal-Mart pharmacy.  Wal-Mart requires you to use their specialty pharmacy division for stuff like enbrel and humira and I don't like having the FedEx guy just leave my meds on my porch.  (he did it once with my enbrel a while back and in the summer no less.  lucky I was only in the shower and it sat out for 20 min at most.)
 
Anyway, that's what I thought about the nsaid thing too.  My dad takes an nsaid and he's been on atenolol for years with it.  While I'm here, do any of the biologics interfere with BP meds?
 
This has been a hard day for me.  Finding out that I now have high BP at the age of 32 wasn't an easy pill to swallow. 
 
Thanks, I'll let everyone know what the doc says about this in the AM.
Bob H.
Bob, I am on Enalapril which is an ACE inhibitor. My Doctor and RA specialist are both in touch with each other re my meds for various conditions and I have never queried them re that particular med.
But......I always use the same Pharmacy to get all my prescriptions filled as the pharmacist is better qualified than anyone to know what works together and what does not. Each time I arrive with a script he brings my name up and checks it out with current meds. I have asked him specifically about this.
 
I am sorry you need to be on BP meds at your age. I am very glad I got to 55 with nary an aspirin needed!! Well, hardly.
 
Cheers...Lyn
Atenolol is a beta blocker, not an ACE inhibitor.  That being said, there is some interaction between NSAIDs and beta blockers.  NSAIDs can render the beta blockers slightly less effective, but it won't blow out his kidneys.  If I were you, I'd talk with the pharmacist first thing in the morning.  He/she is an expert on medications, their interactions, and their adverse reactions - often moreso than the doctors who write the scripts. Jas and Lyndee are right... talk to the pharmacist!!  it's their specialty!!
 
Lots of luck w/ that..
 
 
eta:  hmmm.. alot have high BP w/ RA??  mine has been high.. but no meds yet.. RD said quit smoking which I have... so we'll see.........interesting
babs102008-10-29 04:10:43Why are ace inhibitors not good with RA?  I would be interested to know, I think I am on an ace inhibitor but not NSAIDS.  Regards Janie. I take Toprol XL and HydrochlorothiazideI take Monopril with Relafen.  I didn't know you weren't supposed to take those together.  My RD runs blood tests all the time and I've never had any problems.  My creatinine test always hovers at the max acceptable range and I now wonder if that's why. I called my doc this morning and told him about the lisinopril and nsaid thing.  He said he thought it would be fine but would change my med if that's what I wanted.
 
So he gave me a combination alpha + beta blocker called Coreg or Carvedilol.  I thought this one would be ok too until I picked it up at the pharmacy. (I'm using the same one for all meds now by the way, I just went ahead and transferred my enbrel rx too)  Well, wouldnt you know when reading the insert it mentions that if you have glaucoma to not use this particular drug in this class. 
 
Great...I thought he would have known that one since I asked him if the drops I'm using to treat my glaucoma (from pred) might be affecting my BP.  When taken to the ER I was also complaining of a rapid-pounding heart rate.  (all cardiac labs and ecg were perfectly normal BTW)  The info on this drug says that it dilates the vessels and increases output of the heart.  I may be paranoid, but wouldn't this just make my pulse go faster and harder?
 
Sorry, just needed to vent a bit.
Bob H.
I think Joonie takes coreg- I hope she sees this and helps you out with your question.That would be nice if someone else here did happen to take it and might share some info with me.  I took one earlier and haven't had anything in the way of terrible side effects.  A little upset stomach and that's it.  I just don't want/need any complications from the glaucoma which is my concern.
 
thanks for the heads up
Bob
[QUOTE=bob_h76]I called my doc this morning and told him about the lisinopril and nsaid thing.  He said he thought it would be fine but would change my med if that's what I wanted.
 
Actually, the Coreg CR was not doing that good of a job on 20mg, so cardio dr put me on bystolic as well. Which did wonders! It really did a great job. I did not feel the rapid pulse and I rarely felt my BP go up either.
 
But some time beginning of this month, I was told to stop taking bystolic as it was denied for prior authorization, when I run out of samples and to up the Coreg CR to 40mg again. *sigh*
 
I keep being put back and forth between 20mg and 40mg one time I was on as much as 60mg and it still was not helping my pulse & bp much, and then GP said last resort was 80mg!
 
So... I went to a cardio dr and told him about the 80mg Coreg CR and he said good thing I did not take it because it would have probably caused the problem (ER) that GP said it could cause.
 
So... now I am sitting here on 40mg of Coreg CR and my BP went up yesterday. My face was bright red, I was light headed, and just felt really hot. I can feel my pulse beating once again too, every so often.
 
I guess it is time for me to make another appt with cardio dr again. Oh joy!
 
I am not sure if this post will help you any, Bob. Probably more rambling than anything else, but I typed it all out now... so no deleting it.Being in the medical field myself, I know how hard it is to remember everything about every drug there is. Often times the patient knows more about the drugs than I do because I have to know something about so many. If you think your health care provider has made a mistake, tell them! There are only about 1000 medications for blood pressure, if the one prescribed won't do, get them to prescribe something else.  If you're like me, this makes me mad though cause I've already paid for something that I can't take and then have to pay again for something that I can take. Doctors, physician assistants and nurse practitioners have a lot of responsibility in taking care of us and knowing what to prescribe and what not to prescribe.  Should we have to remind them of the conditions we have and what to be wary in prescribing? Do we actually have to sit there and name off our allergies again? If you want to be proactive you do. btw, I take Metoprolol ER and if my BP is up so high that it won't come down with that, then I throw in some clonidine. Someone was talking about cardiac out put, sorry I can't recall who off the top of my head. Many of the drugs that increase your output (a good thing) actually slow the heart down so that the ventricle can fill more and then increase the pressure to pump so that more escapes from the ventricle. I haven't taken my morning meds yet so I can feel my heart pumping at about 90 beats per minute. Why is it going so fast when I am just sitting here? Pain plays into this and the fact that I have low grade fever almost everyday does too. Ever pick up a kid that has a high fever and you can just feel their poor lil hearts pounding away. Adults do the same thing only usually to a lesser extent. You rev up when you have a fever, your body is trying to increase it's own heat so that it can kill foreign objects. Watch an egg cook in a frying pain, that's the denaturing of protein. The protein is still the protein but it's substance has changed, it's no longer semisolid. Thats sorta what the body does, heats things up so that it's intolerable to live and reproduce here. Unfortunately, I am the foreign object and it's trying to kill me. Well, I got answers today from not only my pcp, but the rheumatologist, and my opthalmologist about Coreg.  They all said take the medicine it shouldn't be a problem.  So I took it a few hours ago.  Nothing major, just noticed that my pulse is slightly lowered.  This to me is good because it has been very fast, around 100 bpm give or take a few. 
Other than that..nada.
Bob H.
Hey Bob, my pulse before the bystolic helped keep it under control, liked the number 120 for some reason. It has been as high as 139 or 135.
 
Last time my RD took my pulse, to make sure she wanted to let me have my Remicade infusion, it was in the 70's.
 
I would hate to see what it is like when I go back for my next Remicade infusion end of next month. They might not let me have it, if my pulse & BP is not controlled like it was being. Which means, I need to head that off before it happens by going back to see the cardio Dr again beginning of next month.
 
I hope the Coreg does great for you. What dosage are you? When I was on regular Coreg I was on 25mg -- 12.5mg 2Xdaily.
I take lisinopril for my BP. I will have to invetigate. Thanks for the heads up. Wish you the best. I hope your new meds do the job.I take Coreg 6.25 mg twice daily.  I think it will work well for me as my hypertension wasn't that bad to begin with.  It's actually just slightly high according to the ER nurses.  I think when I went in it was averaging around 150/100.  My doc said that it needs to be around 120/80 or lower for the bottom number.  If I could ever get on a biologic that will actually work I could move around more.  So far nearly a month on Enbrel and not enough of a difference to notice.  I think this one is going to be a no go too.  On to my last two options...orencia or rituxan.
Bob H.
I was just given Diovan HCT ?? Problem with this ??
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