#21

Yeah Losartan is a 1st generation ARB where Telmisartan is the 3rd gen. What dosage are you on?

#22

One telmisartan 20 mg tablet in the morning and one metoprolol succinate XL 50 mg 24 hr tablet in the evening.

I am not taking these for any particular condition other than old age. They seem to be freely prescribed by most doctors, just express to them that your blood pressure isn’t optimal. Most likely they will start you on metoprolol. So far, and I have been taking metoprolol for over a decade, I haven’t felt any adverse side effects. The combo keeps my blood pressure relatively normal in the 110/65 range. Any lower than that makes me feel slightly dizzy.

#23

I’ve been dealing with high blood pressure for years (family thing), and so far Losartan is the only one I can take.

I currently take 100mg in the evenings and this gets me down to about 145/90 and for me this is “good”. At least I never have overt symptoms like headache etc. My doctor and I are exploring options, but there are several standard meds that either don’t work for me or I refuse to take. I’m hoping to try adding guanfacine. It’s not covered by insurance but retail is cheap enough with a prescription.

On other meds:

More losartan or taking it in the AM causes occasional but significant blood pressure drops. One time I had to crawl across the floor to get my gauge and measurered it at 65/35 - oy.

I had a problem with telmisartan - it’s been a while but I think it also caused drops just more consistently.

Amlodipine was HORRIBLE - it gave me severe central sleep apnea. This is where the sleeping brain doesn’t tell the lungs to inhale. I’d wake up gasping, in a panic, having “forgotten” to breathe for a very long time. Ugh!

Refuse to take hydrochlorothiazide - all my digging made it clear that it lowers blood pressure (yay) but actually INCREASES the chances of heart attack or stroke (boo) long term. Indeed that’s a surprising feature of several HBP meds.

So, hoping guanfacine will be useful.

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#24

I’m on amlodipine and telmisartan for BP. I take amlodipine, 2.5 mg, at night. My oxygen level at night is 92-94. No problems with forgetting to breathe.

#25

From what I understand I think the increased heart attack risk is only seen in people taking it just for diuretic reasons and still having elevated blood pressure / not as part of an overall bp controlling strategy. So in theory, if your blood pressure is well controlled on it, or if you’re taking it as a combo with losartan for example, the increased heart attack risk isn’t really a concern.

#26

That’s great to hear :slight_smile:

I dunno how/why it impacted me that way but it was pretty traumatic.

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#27

I might be mixing different reports - it’s been a long time. Fwiw this is one of several very different articles I was thinking of:

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