The most common side effects include tiredness, headache, dizziness, leg cramps, and upset stomach. Usually these side effects go away within the first few weeks of taking your medication.
While the class of blood pressure-lowering medicines called angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors may be prescribed more commonly, angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) work just as well and may cause fewer side effects.
The most common blood pressure medicines are ACE inhibitors, calcium channel blockers and diuretics. Many people need more than one medicine to bring their high blood pressure under control.
Safe medications to use include methyldopa and potentially some diuretics and beta-blockers, including labetalol.
Like all medicines, high blood pressure medicines can sometimes cause side effects. You may have common problems like headaches, dizziness, or an upset stomach. These can be bothersome to how you feel every day but often lessen after the first few weeks of taking the medicine.
In general, you shouldn't stop taking blood pressure medications suddenly. If you do, they can cause potentially dangerous side effects that can lead to withdrawal symptoms. Blood pressure medications are often stopped more gradually, utilizing a strategy such as tapering.
How they can cause fatigue: Blood-pressure medications may slow down the pumping action of the heart as well as depress the entire central nervous system, or, in the case of diuretics, deplete electrolytes that the body needs.
Moderate or severe headaches, anxiety, shortness of breath, nosebleeds, palpitations, or feeling of pulsations in the neck are some signs of high blood pressure. Often, these are late signs that high blood pressure has existed for some time, therefore annual checks are recommended for all adults.
Can I drink coffee while on blood pressure medication? It depends on the medication. Some medications, like losartan, are generally not affected by caffeine consumption. Other medications used to treat hypertension, like beta-blockers, may not work well if you consume caffeinated products like coffee.
The bottom (second) number, diastolic pressure, is always lower since it reflects the pressure inside the arteries during the resting phase between heartbeats. As it turns out, both systolic and diastolic blood pressure are important.
Still, you can make lifestyle changes to bring your blood pressure down. Something as simple as keeping yourself hydrated by drinking six to eight glasses of water every day improves blood pressure. Water makes up 73% of the human heart,¹ so no other liquid is better at controlling blood pressure.
If you forget to take one or more doses: take your next dose at the normal time and in the normal amount. Do not take any more than your doctor prescribed. If you miss one dose, skip it and continue with your normal schedule.
Blood pressure medication: It's particularly dangerous to mix alcohol with blood pressure medications, like beta blockers and ACE inhibitors, because alcohol can excessively lower your blood pressure, leading to dizziness and rapid heartbeat, and raising your risk of falls or of passing out.
Taking a low dose of two medications rather than a high dose of one, can also help to avoid side effects, as side effects can sometimes be caused by the dose. Sometimes a medication will work well to begin with, but with time your blood pressure might creep up again.
We now know most people have higher blood pressure in the daytime and blood pressure medications start to work within a few hours. And the effect usually lasts a full 24 hours.
Stage 2 high blood pressure is 140/90 or higher. If you get a blood pressure reading of 180/110 or higher more than once, seek medical treatment right away. A reading this high is considered “hypertensive crisis.” Readings between 120/80 and 129/89 are considered pre-hypertension.
A new drug called Baxdrostat has been shown to significantly reduce high blood pressure (hypertension) in patients who may not respond to current treatments for the condition, according to results from a phase II trial led jointly by a Queen Mary University of London researcher and colleagues at CinCor Pharma, USA.