kegstore said:
OK, this is something I haven't seen discussed much. We all know the importance of maintaining a healthy blood pressure, and I have first hand experience of the benefits to eyes and kidneys. However my success is achieved purely by virtue of a daily dose of a cocktail of appropriate medication - Felodipine, Indapamide and Ramipril at the moment - which I will probably be taking for the rest of my days. Throw in Rosuvastatin too, as reduced cholesterol levels will probably lower blood pressure as a side benefit.
My question is: what are the long-term effects of popping all these pills, besides the presumed benefits to my cardiovascular and microvascular systems? I am lucky that I have no negative reaction (that I am aware of at least) to any of my meds, but I'm just curious to know what the situation is likely to be in 10 years time. Anyone got a crystal ball?
Ramipril and other ACE inhibitors are generally well tolerated unless you get the annoying cough in which case ARBs are a suitable though more expensive alternative. Both have kidney protective effects.
CCBs like Felodipine are usually used as second line meds as they may have the potential for more side effects.
For example my mother was originally on Candesartan (ARB) and later had Lasix (diuretic) and then Felodipine (CCB) added. Later when her BP fell they cancelled the Candesartan and left her on the other two. First she started getting gout attacks, then her BP started going very high and dropping back to normal on a cyclic basis. Changing the Lasix (Furosemide) to Bumetanide and cancelling the Felodipine and restarting Candesartan on the minimum dose has made her stable again and her BP is now borderline low.
Not everything does what it says on the tin for everyone, two good sites for drug information
http://www.rxlist.com/script/main/hp.asp
http://www.drugs.com/
My BP along with my lipids was heading into the stratosphere and I'd been on losartan for years with no known problems.
Dropping the carbs, insulin resistance and hence insulin levels was spectacularly successful, at one stage we discussed dropping the meds but I was persuaded to stay on them for the kidney and other benefits, I was switched to Olmesartan (a different ARB) purely for cost reasons. Five years down the line and it's started to creep up again, but then I am five years older!
Some people are highly sodium sensitive and benefit from salt reduction, but this is ineffective in the majority of the population, including me. Increasing potassium may help BUT check for potential interractions with some BP meds and diuretics. So may red wine and many other foodstuffs.
Long term with all meds it's a crapshoot, some meds adversely affect some patients and not others but hypertension if unchecked can cause major long term problems so it's a case of choosing the lesser of two evils
