Spikes symptoms and conditions

II'm a 54 year old male and I've been taking Lisinopril for about 24 months for moderately high BP (135/85). Initially, I was fatigued late morning, but that seemed to go away in a month or two. Having a previous back condition, I didn't blame the tightness in my glutes and legs on the pill or the extreme morning soreness, but now I wonder. Also, in six months I gained about 50 pounds with no change in lifestyle (205 to 255). I read in a few of the Drug Co. sites that this is a rare effect, but not in any postings here. Anyone else have this problem?
I also seem to have developed an explosive type of temper that I don't recall before, blowing up at minor things, then it quickly passes. Anybody?
Where the drug initially lowered my BP to 120/75, with the weight gain I need the drug to keep it in the neighborhood of the original problem (140/85). If I miss a dose it spikes to 170/115 or higher, so I'm basically forced to take it or another BPM where originally I had a very minor problem. I thought this was a common pill that was described as relatively benign, but I' starting to realize that's not the case at all.

As a fairly healthy 34 year old male, I went to my doctor for help getting over poison ivy mid-July 2008. I received the Kenalog 40 injection without being advised on any potential side effects. Within 36 hours I started having severe anxiety attacks with spikes in my blood pressure and vision problems (spotty, increased sensitivity to light). These attacks continued for 4-8 weeks during which time I underwent an MRI (head), stress test, and blood work to make sure nothing else was causing my symptoms.....conclusion: everything normal. My doctor prescribed me Xanax to help with the out of control anxiety. Started feeling more normal 60-90 days later. I started trying to run on my treadmill to get back in shape at the 90 day mark, and once again....symptoms returned. It's been a couple of weeks and I'm getting closer to being back to "normal", but I have no idea how long it will be before the Kenalog has completely metabolized out of my system, and I can get on with life. This has been a horrible experience and I would caution anyone from receiving this drug!

I have been taking 20mg of Lisinopril and 5mg of Amlodipine for more than 5 years.The only physical complaint that I can directly attribute to these drugs would probably be the dry cough in the back of my throat. Other symptoms such as general fatigue and insomnia could possibly be attributed but I don't know for sure. Recently I visited my doctor and asked him what would be the perfect number for both systolic and diastolic pressure for someone of my age . This question proved unbelievably difficult for him. After much prevarication we somehow agreed between us that systolic between 140/145 and diastolic between 80/85 would be good numbers.I then told him that I had stopped taking the Amlodipine for over a month. Also during this period I had taken blood pressure readings twice a day and apart from a couple of spikes I was satisfied that my numbers were acceptable. He then said that unless my BP monitor was calibrated once or twice a year then I could not rely on my readings as they could easily be 5 - 10% out. Is this correct do BP monitors have to be calibrated to be accurate? Since I thought my BP readings were acceptable my intention was to lower my intake of Lisinopril and eventually stop using it altogether. My hope was that exercise, diet, supplements etc. could replace the snake venom circulating in my body but I am no longer convinced that this is a realistic aim.

TWO PIECES OF ADVICE:
DO NOT DRINK alcohol within 6 hrs and EAT right before taking Toprol. This should help with all mentioned side effects!
I have noticed that if I drink ANY alcohol within six hours of taking Toprol (before or after), my HR skyrockets to 190+BPM. I thought this might help others. Also, I MUST eat at least 2 slices of bread each time I take it. Otherwise, I will feel very dizzy, faint and have bad dreams.
If I eat, I have no side effects.
Also, there have been a couple times where I missed a dose or took it late and each time, I feel my heart starting to race and the PVC's coming back.

I have been on 25 mg of Toprol for 6months due to PVC's and rapid/ racing HR (160+)/ palps and BP spikes. My 24hr Holter (six months ago) showed 370 PVC's in one day, so I was put on Toprol. All other heart tests were normal. Anyway, it has worked wonders for me. I had another Holter done last week and there were NO PVC's and steady HR and BP. Since being on Toprol HR is 65, BP is 105/60 or so.

I am a 37 year old female that went to the ER 3 days ago for chest tightness & extremely high blood sugar. I have had high blood pressure in the past years but as of a year ago when I was diagnosed as being diabetic my blood pressure has been normal about 117/75 so I go to the ER and they give me 2 EKG's and a heart monitor for 24hrs and put me through a stress test,they also give me this little pill and say it will help me, well not feeling well and wanting to feel good again I take the pill no questions asked. I have never felt so tired in my life. I thought well chest pains will do that to you so I dismissed it. I know they were making sure I do not have a heart attack but, my blood pressure seems to be going lower and lower and I am more tired by the minute, they released me from the hospital and gave me a million RX's including toprol and lisinopril both of whch lower blod pressure ??? do they want me to pass out? so yesterday I took the toprol only and felt like I was sinking , my thinking seemed foggy and my legs felt rubbery. I am sooooo glad I found this site because I will not take this drug ever again I already suffer weight issues being diabetic I don't need anything else. I would prefer to be interested in sex and be able too function this drug seems like it is more negative than it is worth. I think I will stick with the lisinopril, and why would they give me two blood pressure meds when my blood pressure is already normal??? If anyone has a comment please let me know I am very scared about this whole thing

My heart rate spikes when my blood pressure gets markedly lower. I also get really dizzy when that happens. I know that so many of you are struggling with these side effects and I also know (based on experience) how nerve wracking it can be. Maybe...just maybe we aren't experiencing side effects from the drug exactly, but instead the effect of the drug working. Maybe once our bodies get used to the lowered pressure, our heart rates will normalize. Maybe when we adjust to the lowered pressure a little better, we won't get so dizzy....

Don't mean to sound preachy...I guess I'm just trying to suggest an alternative view...again, one that is based on experience../.

When my bp, which had always been VERY low, rather suddenly skyrocketed at age 48 (possibly as a long-term effect of the preeclampsia I had 23 years ago when pregnant with my daughter), I was put on 10 mg of Lisinopril. I had diarrhea by that evening. The next day, the diarrhea thankfully disappeared, but other flu-like symptoms set in--mostly nausea and muscle weakness/fatigue. The nausea often made it hard to eat, and the muscle weakness was so bad that sometimes I'd have to stop what I was doing---even typing on the computer--and go lie down. Fortunately, these symptoms abated after one week, and I've been fine for the last two weeks. But now, as my bp is still too high, my Lisinopril is being increased to 20 mg, so I fear getting sick again.

My BP had been slightly elevated for over a year and my doctor felt it was time for medication. He started me on 25mgs and continued to increase it till I reached 100mgs. I started having anxiety attacks, lightheadedness, dizziness and finally ended up so sick that I was in bed for three days. It was the toprol. I was only on toprol for 3months but found out that trying to come off the drug was the hardest thing I have done. I never had BP spikes before but at the end of the first 24 hrs. without Toprol my BP was hitting 200/104. I went to ER. Matter of fact, the spikes continued and I was in and out of ER until I was finally admitted for tests. The spikes were also accompanied by flushing, rapid pulse(122 beats per minute), lightheadedness and diarrhea.Many times I thought I was having a heart attack. I have seen two cardiologists, an internist and now an endocrinologist for these "BP spikes". All tests come back normal. No matter what the new medication is, nor how low my BP might stay for up to three days....the episodes still happen. My BP can go from a normal range too 200 systolic in a matter of less than 1/2 hr..........Has anyone else had spikes in their BP when coming off toprol. It has been 11 months since stopping this awful drug and I still I no answers....but I have a pile of medical bills.

I started Metoprolol 6 months ago while in the ER. I was weak with a virus and every time I got up and did anything, my heart would race and would feel weaker. I have white coat syndrome so while I was in the ER my BP went up to 227/110. They gave me 25 mg of Toprol and a prescription for 12.5 mg a day. I have gained 17 lbs in 6 months, have zero energy, tired all the time, insomnia, and am depressed for the first time in my life,ad I know it has to be from the Metoprolol. I tried to quit it and 3 days later my heart was racing so bad and my blood pressure was real high. I want to try to quit it but am afraid to. Any suggestions on how to quit it?

I am a 41 year old male that has BP averaging 140/90 and spikes that were extremely hi 190/125 (which landed me in th ER). Lisinopril 10MG was prescribed last Friday. My BP came down immediately yesterday 111/75 today 109/69. That is the only good thing. I have a headache, dizziness, feel disoriented, had urges to urinate and nothing would happen. Yesterday while trying to walk, wash my trailer, or even chew a piece of gum whatever muscle I was using became soar immediately. They felt as if I had run a marathon or something. Today after one flight of stairs to get to my office I was short of breath and my leg muscles hurt. I had to go lay down at lunch because this stuff makes me so tired. It is like I have been poisoned. As I'm typing my fingers hurt and the metal taste in my mouth has me thinking I want to trash this stuff. The doctor says they haven't herd of these side effects and and they said to cut the pill in half.

I was on Prednisone for just over two weeks for a bad skin rash (allergic reaction). I went to the ER they gave me an injection on Prednisone. The next day my Doctor puts me on 40mg a day for 10 days then down to 20mg, and then 10mg. The side effects were (and are) crazy. Blood sugar and Blood pressure are through the roof. My heart pounds,races, skips beats. Hands shaking, nervous, and panic attacks. Yeah, sure, the rash is gone, but I feel like a train wreck. I took my last dose 2 days ago, and have been told it can take 2 to 4 weeks for this to get completely out of my system and end the side effects. Can anybody else verify this?? Good god, what a mess!!

Every time I take Vazotuss HC, my temperature spikes and I get very nauseated

I'm fortunate (so far!) that my experience with Lisinopril has been mostly uncomplicated, judging by what I'm reading about what others have gone through. I've been taking only 2.5 mg per day (a scrip given to me by my generalist; my cardiologist subsequently said she would have started me on 30mg!) for about a week. BP is mostly good with occasional unexplained spikes up to 135-ish over 80. No cough, nothing else to note, except the DREAMS! I've always been one of those people who tend to remember dreams, and they've often been vivid, but these are *intense.* Not necessarily bad (though there have been a couple that caused me to wake up suddenly from fear or revulsion), but vivid, intense, active, and memorable. I'm evaluating whether, over time, this will affect my energy level; i.e., what does this mean for quality of sleep?

Update - 7th day with zero Toprol. Feel just awful... Breathing has not improved, tight band feeling around chest keeps coming and going like before. B/P spikes, headaches, etc. The Diovan (80mg) was making me cough and making chest tightness worse - so she tried me on Dyazide - made me dizzy and sick to my stomach. This has been just one of the WORST experiences of my life. I was SURE all my problems were related to my (4) years on Toprol - but on day 7 with NO TOPROL and not feeling better I am depressed, discouraged, and just want to curl up and cry and cry and cry. I have ended up in the ER three times since the weaning began - once for breathing, once for pulse (over 215) and once for severe abdominal pain. My family thinks that I am 'mental' and that it is all in my head???? I cannot take much more of this.....

Hi Toprol-XL Victims. I was put on this med because the doctor felt that I only needed to be on one blood pressure med and not two. I was told to take 100mg a day, but after telling the doctor that I almost passed out 5 times just after 3 days of use, he quickly cut it in half to 50 mg. There are days when my BP spikes. It's only spiked about two-three times over the past 6 months of use.

As with all of you here, I have good days and bad days. Mainly the fuzzy, cloudy feeling in the head, the shortness of breath when going up flights of stairs. My BP was 160-180 over 90. Now it stays about 98/62 - 130/78, and when it does spike it goes up to about 160 or so. Some days I get up and I feel just great...I just wish I had a larger % of good days vs. bad days.

I look at the alternative though.....I almost had a stroke one year ago, and that was not pleasant. I still suffer with slight palipations/seizures (have had two attacks so far). The doctor says it is stress related, but like I told him, I never had problems before. I watch what I eat now. I've lost a good 45 lb.s with another 65 lbs. to go. I'm hoping once I lose all of the weight the BP will drop by itself. I cannot stress enough the importance of removing salt from your diet...oh my goodness. I'll give you an example. One night I had ground meat over white rice (that was prepared on top the stove - no salt of course, but the meat brought its own bad elements to the table). I stood up to walk a straight line and wound up walking a slant. My BP shot up just from eating that.

So far this drug was the only thing to kind of keep me in check w/ my BP.

I have been on lisinopril since January 07. I had a drug eluting stent put in my heart Feb 05, and after a bad experience with Beta Blockers had to go off of them, and try to find natural ways to help my heart/pulse rate. The lisinopril has helped with the pulse spikes, and lowered my bp, but the past three months I have been experiencing really bad cramps on the left side of my body and in chest. Very frightening and uncomfortable, wake you up in the middle of the night. both legs, and kidney area. Cannot carry my purse or anything heavy on left side. Also had bad cough in the morning. It got so bad this weekend thought I was going to have a heart attack. I awoke this morning realizing that maybe, just maybe it is the BP medication. Would not be the first time I have had problems with the poisen doctors hand out. I want to find a natural supplement that will lower my bp, without the lisinopril it was about 150/90, not great, but not too crazy. I think I won't refill the lisinopril and see how it goes....any ideas out there?

I started taking Prilosec OTC a month ago to treat GERD...just over a month ago. Very shortly after starting the medication, I noticed I was getting dull headaches and tension in my head that lasted throughout the day...not a migraine, but enough to be annoying. I also noticed as time went on that I have become very nervous/anxious, my heart rate jumps up easily, and now I am having blood pressure spikes that I never had before. I have seen that Omeprazole (similar drug) has caused similar problems in others, and even my doctor told me that the same class of drugs can cause similar problems. My GP is very suspicious, because all of this began after I took the drug. Even though I had slightly elevated Dr's office BP, it was never at current levels. And I cant sleep at night nearly as well, and that DEFINITELY started just after taking the meds. Anyone else experience this?? My Gastro Doctor is skeptical, but I think my GP DR thinks something is not right here and she suspects the medicine...

I am 31, been taking this stuff for about 5 years now. I am always tired, sometimes dizzy spells hit me out of nowhere. I wake up at night with my heart racing and/or pounding. If I get up out of bed suddenly, I swear my heart is going to beat out of my chest. I have had bouts with PVC or my heart skipping beats and such. The least little thing I do I feel like I've ran a marathon, out of breath, heart racing and pounding. A few months after starting, I developed horrible acid reflux, so of course had to start taking Nexium. My hands sometimes slightly swell and get red and I also get the hot flashes like my bp suddenly spikes on me, but i'll take it and it'll be normal. Im going to the doctor and get off this medicine. I also always feel weird, or like i'm just not all here. I feel like an idoit its taken me this long to figure it all out. I feel like i've lost 5 years of my life to feeling horrible.

All you are Hypochondriacs. If one person says this medicine is causing this, then of course; you all have the same problem "some how." Isn't this weird? It is called the "placebo effect." Normally all the people involved in the testing are given "Lisinopril" (or some other drug), then the placebo group is given a vitamin supplement, the group receving the vitamin supplement is being told they are receving "Lisinopril." Mysteriously?, the "placebo group" is all feeling better and their symptoms are gone. This is due to the fact that all these people in the "placebo group" have interacted with eachother and have told eachother "I feel better" than of course everybody feels better. So WEIRD!! So, my point is this forum is all your peoples "placebo group." If you guys never heard of these side effects from this forum you would have never experinced them. Hypochondriacs all of you are. This is a very good medicine that is helping all of you make up for your peoples lack of self-disipline to control your diet or exercise enough to lower your blood pressure naturally. So be thankful. Lets not complain about false side effects because John has them. I wonder what the side-effects of that cheese burger are that caused high blood pressure. It is funny, I don't see a forum for that. So deal with your so called "side-effects" that are associsted with "Lisinopril" or go on a diet people. Get over it!!

Mom is 80 and was always a go getter. Now her life has been in shambles with taking the Lisinopril. This drug is made from Brazilian poisonous snake venom. Hard to believe that this is being out to treat folks. Anyway, Mom went down after three months on this stuff. Her mind was always good and her memory sharp until her Physician put her on this stuff. Now, her hands go numb, mainly at night. Her breathing is hard and extreme fatigue. We almost lost her last week from a spike in her blood pressure, she was still on the Lisinopril by the way. 911 was called and they worked to get her blood pressure down. She was hauled to the hospital twice. The doctor could not find a thing. Ha ha. They never once thought to take her off the Lisinopril, even though it showed no effectiveness against the blood pressure spikes. She is scared to get off this mess. They now have upped the dose double and put her on an additional blood pressure patch, dizzy pills and an anti anxiety drug. All this due to this venom that she is ingesting. Has anyone had stroke like symptoms with this medicine? Also, her hands go numb and she cannot sleep. She has had hallucinations of people sitting and talking during the night. What a terrible thing for the FDA to approve!

After being prescribed 10mg a day, my BP went down dramatically, sometimes as low as 85/60, and I was feeling very fatigued. ( No wonder ) I cut the dose to 5mg and my BP is still on the low side, but occasionally spikes to 140/90, then abruptly goes down to the very low 100's/70 or so. IN the past six weeks or so, I started to develop a very dry cough. In the past three weeks or so, I've had a very dry mouth, to the point where it's painfully dry upon awakening in the morning. I've had a few episodes of "skipped" heartbeats, sometimes feel the sensation of pressure on the left side of my chest, but never made a correlation of these symptoms with the medication. Since reading this, I'm going to d/c the medication and ask my doc about a beta blocker, which I've taken in the past with virtually no side effects, other than a lower pulse rate. This has been really eye-opening!

Hi,
I have been on Linsinopril since 7-24 and I hate it!!!! My blood pressure still spikes 170/108, but in this last week it has stayed pretty stable at about 125/89. I hate the side effects though and my doctor's are acting like I am crazy. I just called to report them and they said that the side effects I mentioned are not caused by this medicine. This is pure Crap!!! Everyone I have talked to has the same side effects--the tingleing all over the body, dizziness, severe nausea and I have actually thrown up 4 times this week alone, but Doc said it's not this med!!! I don't know what to do??? I am only 35 and I don't want to go untreated with the HBP, but I can't live like this!!!! any suggestions??? I would really like to try and lower it naturally!

I took Toprol XL 25 mg for three months after my doc said my BP was really high one day. I experienced horrible side effects---too tired, lethargic, depressed, no desire to do normal tasks, sort of like a walking coma. My BP fell to the 110/65 range. I switched to 12.5 mg for four months, and that's when I developed debilitating BP spikes over 200/110 every month--I had never had a BP spike before in my life. They were caused by the lower dose of Toprol, I believe. Changing to 6.25 mg last week to get off was even worse with the surges, but I felt great and had some energy!!! My doctor put me on Clonidine for the spikes and things are going well. Some Internet posts say that even at tiny doses of Toprol, it can take 3 weeks to get the spikes to stop!! Such a nasty drug! Ask your doc if something else will work for you, and consider Clonidine for that period right after stopping it. After I detox from Toprol, I am not sure I will even need BP medication because it is so low and I am losing weight, eliminating salt, etc. Good luck!

I do get the difficulty in swallowing... not on a regular basis... but at night... as I am falling asleep... I also experience... spikes in appetite and horrible sleeping habits.. but... my main concern is numbness in my hands... I am taking Morphine Sulfate.... 100mg every 12 hours... and 10mg... (for severe spikes in pain) 1-2 every 4 hours, as required. I have stuck to the every 12 hour pill diligently... and I take the 10 mg as required ~ approximately 6-8 every 24 hours.

I have be on several different pain meds the past year or so and approximately 1 week maybe sooner after starting the Morphine I starting experiencing numbness in both hands... It is driving me insane. My Dr. has prescribed arm braces for when I sleep... to keep my wrists straight... Hence... Carpul Tunnel.. Is this Morphine related???

And... is rehab in my future after surgery and recovery... ???