My heart rate spikes when my blood pressure gets markedly lower. ...

My husband, age 46, had a heart bypass two weeks ago. Suprisingly, he left the hospital feeling great. Last week, he started taking Lisinopril. Now, he can barely get out of bed. About 1-2 hours after taking this medication, he begins coughing, vomiting, gaging and sweating profusely. Tomorrow he has an appoinment. We are throwing this medication in the trash.

Someone else posted that we all just needed to drink more water: that was our problem with lisinopril!!! No, I'm sorry; this drug causes real problems in a lot of people.

Anyway, yes, some people I suppose can get used to the med, for example, the dizziness from the lower blood pressure. You should note that dizziness, though is a sign of blood pressure that is perhaps too low, but of course, the doctors don't think there is such a thing as too low - we should all go around swooning and dizzy all day long so we'll have less heart disease.

One reason that doctors prescribe dosages that are too high for us and make us dizzy is that many of us have higher bp in the doctor’s office than we do normally at home. Though many doctors resent the concept, the doctor's office is a stressful environment; visiting the doctor for some is a confrontational experience no matter how nice he/she is. It is well-known phenomenon called white-coat hypertension.

We should all take control of our bp measurement (as patients have done over the years with their temperature measurement - this too used to be the doctor's purview). Log bp daily, take them when at rest - after being at rest for at least 20 min. Then if bp is higher in the doctor's office you have some more data to go with.

As I understand it, we are trying to lower our resting bp (to provide our veins and arteries a chance to rest and heal) instead of necessarily trying to lower our active bp or peak bp during exercise (exercise is known to be good for us despite the temporary increase in bp).

Some of us take a bit longer for the bp to settle down after climbing stairs or even walking around. I think there is variation among us that is not necessarily as bad as the doctors would have us believe. Our bp changes every second of every day, so there is no one true 'reading'. I believe (as a patient, not a doctor) that medicating so that our active bp or our bp in the doctor's office is low results in overmedication in general and especially for our resting condition.

The other side effects of lisinopril though are serious indications of problems: a bad reaction by the body to this med. Trying to stick it out is just plain stupid: these bad reactions will only increase to the point of long lasting damage that will far far (months to years) outlast quitting the med. It is ridiculous that in the face of permanent damage, doctors often encourage their patients to stick it out and see what happens. They should encourage their patients to stop the med for a while and see what happens instead (especially since hbp is mostly known for causing problems only after years of being out of control, not for a few weeks of such).

These signs of these serious reaction problems include (but are not limited to) the cough, the shortness of breath, the rashes, the sweating, the fatigue, the depression, the abdominal pains, the palpitations, the rapid heart rate. And for some, dizziness, I would imagine, is caused by a serious reaction to the drug rather than by merely low bp.

Well of course people should be aware of the signs of an alllergic reaction wit this or any med. I'm simply suggesting that...again based on my own experience...that the dizziness and heart rate spikes MAY be the result of the medication doing it's job and that getting all worked up over that could actually exacerbate the situation.