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Something the Dr's dont tell you... VERY important.

E

Elli-may

Newbie
Hi, My father is a type 2 diabetic, has been for 25 years and luckily had no issues until recently. His GP seems to know less about diabetes than we do but not an issues so far. This changed 3 weeks ago.
My dad had a massive heart attack. The reason I am telling you is because no one told us about an issue all type 2 diabetics should be aware of. Medication such as ramipril is used by diabetics, however Ramipril and similar drugs can mask the sign of a heart attack. My dad was in distress for 3 days thinking he had bad indigestion. It was actually a heart attack with no pain ( known as a silent heart attack). Has we known this we would have gone to hospital a lot sooner. Dad's ok and with time will have a complete recovery but I just wanted to inform as many people as possible to be aware that your very necessary medication could disguise the symptoms of a heart attack, the symptoms you might present with are similar to that of the signs females need to look for, upset stomach, indigestion, tired... tight chest but no pain.
I don't want to scare anyone, and this is not to freak anyone out but we were really lucky that we got help in time, we were at the doctors for something else when this happened. Had we been at home it might not have been so good because the signs were not there.
To be clear the meds did not cause this, it would have happened anyway, but they did hid the symptoms.
We will be having a conversation with the Dr about what other things could be hidden by the meds - I would suggest you have a similar conversation at your next diabetic appointment. Take care all.
 
A lot of people with or without taking ramipril think a heart attack is indigestion. Before my big one, I had what was thought to be bad indigestion for a week.
 
Thank you.

And I recently read (was it a thread on here?) that women experience heart attacks differently from men (jaw pain, not chest/arm pain) and are therefore more likely to die from them, for the same reasons - they simply don't realise they are having a heart attack.

It is also worth noting that Ramipril is likely to be prescribed more and more in the future. It is a cheap drug and the new NICE guidelines encourage it as an early option for newly diagnosed type 2s
 
Elli-may said:
Hi, My father is a type 2 diabetic, has been for 25 years and luckily had no issues until recently. His GP seems to know less about diabetes than we do but not an issues so far. This changed 3 weeks ago.
My dad had a massive heart attack. The reason I am telling you is because no one told us about an issue all type 2 diabetics should be aware of. Medication such as ramipril is used by diabetics, however Ramipril and similar drugs can mask the sign of a heart attack. My dad was in distress for 3 days thinking he had bad indigestion. It was actually a heart attack with no pain ( known as a silent heart attack). Has we known this we would have gone to hospital a lot sooner. Dad's ok and with time will have a complete recovery but I just wanted to inform as many people as possible to be aware that your very necessary medication could disguise the symptoms of a heart attack, the symptoms you might present with are similar to that of the signs females need to look for, upset stomach, indigestion, tired... tight chest but no pain.
I don't want to scare anyone, and this is not to freak anyone out but we were really lucky that we got help in time, we were at the doctors for something else when this happened. Had we been at home it might not have been so good because the signs were not there.
To be clear the meds did not cause this, it would have happened anyway, but they did hid the symptoms.
We will be having a conversation with the Dr about what other things could be hidden by the meds - I would suggest you have a similar conversation at your next diabetic appointment. Take care all.
Click to expand...
What sort of foods does your dad eat? out of interest.
 
Actually when I had my heart attacks all I had was an ache in my lower arms which wouldn't go when taking painkillers, so after three days of discomfort when I went up to the gp I jokingly said "I think I'm having a heart attack, I've got achy arms" he popped me on the ecg machine and said "As it happens you are" and "It looks as if you've had a couple more too" the rest as they say is history, so don't discount the achy arms, and no I wasn't taking any tablets at the time except Loperimide for my IBS.
 
I take a Ramipril tablet every morning, I can't even remember how long I have been doing this, they were prescribed by my Doctor as a........????
I don't even know what they are for! Some type of heart attack prevention medication? Maybe time I read the leaflet :)
 
Thank you for your excellent post. I used to take Ramipril to lower my blood pressure, but don't take any blood pressure tablets now.
 
zand said:
Thank you for your excellent post. I used to take Ramipril to lower my blood pressure, but don't take any blood pressure tablets now.
Click to expand...
@zand How long did it take you to get off blood pressure pills?I ask, because this is my next focus. I had thought that diet and exercise would have made a difference by now.
Thanks for the info on silent heart attack.
 
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Sorry to hear about your father. I hope he continues to make a full recovery.

However I have read somewhere that silent heart attacks affect diabetics because their nerves have been damaged that give pain signals, and they have been damaged due to diabetes, not the drugs they take.

I don't mean to be argumentative in anyway, just something I have read that may or may not be correct.
 
Elli-May, so sorry to read about your lovely dad. I do hope he make s a complete recovery. Top marks to you for sharing this nugget of important info with us all. My dad was prescribed Ramipril and he seemed ok with it. I did my research at the time (2011) about the drug and read constantly that people were developing this horrendous cough because of it.

I took interest in this (being a new diabetic as well) that it would not suit me because I have chronic bad back ~ should it be prescribed! Soon enough it was and I refused to take it (change of GP's to complicate matters) When I was ordered to take them, they did give me the horrendous cough which I was really angry about as it started my sciatica off. After moving to a different area, my new GP changed it to a different pill and it seems to suit.

I didn't know it could mask the symptoms of a heart attack. I'll make a point of asking my diabetic nurse next time I'm in. I've been having a few pains that feel like trapped wind.
 
Ramipril isn't routinely prescribed for diabetes. Its a blood pressure drug and so taken by lots of non diabetics as well as diabetics who also have high blood pressure.

I'm glad your dad is ok though.
 
Ramipril is mainly used to treat hypertension but it also has kidney protective effects as well which is the reason why many type-2's who do not have hypertension are also on it.
 
I'm on a very small 1.25mg of ramipril to protect my kidneys never had high blood pressure - had no problems with it
 
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