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Are you taking diuretics for hypertension -- or another health condition?
If the kind you take aren't potassium-sparing, then you must be very careful to monitor (or have your doctor monitor) your crucial minerals such as magnesium, potassium, calcium and sodium (it's possible to excrete too much sodium while on diuretics--especially if you're drinking a lot of fluid).
Diuretics wash away these crucial minerals along with your increase urine. And a depletion can worsen your high blood pressure instead of improving it.
I've been doing some independent research since I was briefly put on HCTZ for HBP and had a worsening of my symptoms--as well as feeling like a limp dish-rag.
Lots of good info on the 'net on eating foods high in these vital nutrients--most of all mag, potassium and calcium.
Most of us get plenty of sodium without even trying (it's in everything, it seems)--but the other 3 are harder to consume daily without making some effort.
What about you??
Have you had good or bad results from diuretics yourself??
I take 25 mg/ day of chlorthalidone ( a non K sparing diuretic) as one of my meds for high blood pressure, and never seem to have a problem with low blood potassium- it's checked about every 3 months with other testing as part of my cancer surveillance program.
I try to maintain a healthy diet, exercise regularly, and my blood pressure is fairly well under control, so I couldn't determine exactly what part the chlorthalidone plays in controlling the hypertension.
Chlorthalidone was added to my blood pressure meds several years ago when my blood pressure was climbing out of control, so maybe its helped.
I use 20 mg of furosomide,diuretic and control of BP,very effective,blood pressure has been stable now for several years.
Once in awhile it might spike in the morning and I will take a additional 20mg.if my BP were to jump to 160 the 20mg would drop it to 128 in an hour and all is o'k from then on.My primary care doctor checks blood every 6 months.
When I started this med my BP was out of control,in 210-215 and 40mg took care of it.
Amazing stories. This is what yuu get when physicians practice according to the recipe book without knowing what they are actually doing.
Diuretics-- they work by altering the way the kidneys process sodium-- they allow you to excrete more sodium, which drags water with it, so you're becoming slightly dehydrated,,,With less water in your veins, so to spoeak, your pressure comes down. This can be amazingly affective by itself for BP control in older people, but youger people usually will have a physiological response to the lower fluid levels and compensate to "fill the veins back up," and BP rises again...That's when a second drug like ACE inhibitors, beta-blockers, ca channel blockers etc can be added.
HCTZ & chlorhalidone are thiazides and they do also cause loss of K & Mg, and K levels should be monitored. K supplenents can be prescribed as necessary. A smarter way tho, is to prescribe a combination of Hctz + triamterene-- a weaker diuretic that saves K. They usually balance each other out just right.
Lasix (furosemide) is considered a "stronger" diuretic, but it isn't really-- It just works very fast, often causing a real rush to the BR after using it, but in a 24 hr period, it causes the same amount of Na & water loss as the "weaker" ones. In the long run, Lasix gives better than needed lowering of the BP for the first half of the day, and then the BP goes back up for the second half as the drug poops out. It should not be used for BP control unless there is some other reason (CHF, CRF etc) to use it....It's also even worse on K than the thiazides.
BUT- drugs like ACEs & ARBs and some beta blockers can cause retention of K, so it's usually a better idea to use thiazides alone (not the combination diuretics like Dyazide or Maxzide) with them, and not to arbitrarily prescribe K supplements unless lab monitoring strictly shows a need.
Have to watch the kidneys I knew people on bp meds for over a decade and they started to lose kidney function. It took months of drinking extra water and not taking things Hczt and potassium. After a fall they got regular physical therarpy and didn't need them the rest of life. Walking/exercise with regularity helps.
Have to watch the kidneys I knew people on bp meds for over a decade and they started to lose kidney function. It took months of drinking extra water and not taking things Hczt and potassium. After a fall they got regular physical therarpy and didn't need them the rest of life. Walking/exercise with regularity helps.
I have taken blood pressure medications for over 20 years and my PCP tells me my kidney functions are as good as those of a teenager. Of course I drink plenty of water, always have, and exercise regularly.
Sometimes a person's health history necessitates taking prescription medication to maintain a decent status quo ( despite claims from "internet experts" with no knowledge of said personal history that the prescribing doctors "don't know what they're doing")- I don't mean you, of course. But there is no argument from me that life styles, including diet and regular exercise go a long way in keeping blood pressure under control. Works well for other chronic conditions as well.
Amazing stories. This is what yuu get when physicians practice according to the recipe book without knowing what they are actually doing.
Diuretics-- they work by altering the way the kidneys process sodium-- they allow you to excrete more sodium, which drags water with it, so you're becoming slightly dehydrated,,,With less water in your veins, so to spoeak, your pressure comes down. This can be amazingly affective by itself for BP control in older people, but youger people usually will have a physiological response to the lower fluid levels and compensate to "fill the veins back up," and BP rises again...That's when a second drug like ACE inhibitors, beta-blockers, ca channel blockers etc can be added.
HCTZ & chlorhalidone are thiazides and they do also cause loss of K & Mg, and K levels should be monitored. K supplenents can be prescribed as necessary. A smarter way tho, is to prescribe a combination of Hctz + triamterene-- a weaker diuretic that saves K. They usually balance each other out just right.
Lasix (furosemide) is considered a "stronger" diuretic, but it isn't really-- It just works very fast, often causing a real rush to the BR after using it, but in a 24 hr period, it causes the same amount of Na & water loss as the "weaker" ones. In the long run, Lasix gives better than needed lowering of the BP for the first half of the day, and then the BP goes back up for the second half as the drug poops out. It should not be used for BP control unless there is some other reason (CHF, CRF etc) to use it....It's also even worse on K than the thiazides.
BUT- drugs like ACEs & ARBs and some beta blockers can cause retention of K, so it's usually a better idea to use thiazides alone (not the combination diuretics like Dyazide or Maxzide) with them, and not to arbitrarily prescribe K supplements unless lab monitoring strictly shows a need.
Not sure how a mention of taking a diuretic for blood pressure and that it may help ( along with the other meds) to control the blood pressure constitutes an "amazing story". Or exactly how you arrive at the conclusion from those words that the involved prescribing physicians "don't know what they are doing".
Amazing stories. This is what yuu get when physicians practice according to the recipe book without knowing what they are actually doing.
Diuretics-- they work by altering the way the kidneys process sodium-- they allow you to excrete more sodium, which drags water with it, so you're becoming slightly dehydrated,,,With less water in your veins, so to spoeak, your pressure comes down. This can be amazingly affective by itself for BP control in older people, but youger people usually will have a physiological response to the lower fluid levels and compensate to "fill the veins back up," and BP rises again...That's when a second drug like ACE inhibitors, beta-blockers, ca channel blockers etc can be added.
HCTZ & chlorhalidone are thiazides and they do also cause loss of K & Mg, and K levels should be monitored. K supplenents can be prescribed as necessary. A smarter way tho, is to prescribe a combination of Hctz + triamterene-- a weaker diuretic that saves K. They usually balance each other out just right.
Lasix (furosemide) is considered a "stronger" diuretic, but it isn't really-- It just works very fast, often causing a real rush to the BR after using it, but in a 24 hr period, it causes the same amount of Na & water loss as the "weaker" ones. In the long run, Lasix gives better than needed lowering of the BP for the first half of the day, and then the BP goes back up for the second half as the drug poops out. It should not be used for BP control unless there is some other reason (CHF, CRF etc) to use it....It's also even worse on K than the thiazides.
BUT- drugs like ACEs & ARBs and some beta blockers can cause retention of K, so it's usually a better idea to use thiazides alone (not the combination diuretics like Dyazide or Maxzide) with them, and not to arbitrarily prescribe K supplements unless lab monitoring strictly shows a need.
1) OP was given Hctz and apparently no attention was given to his K levels until he developed sumptoms. Fortunately his first symptom wasn't a fatal dysrhythmia.
2) Chlorthalidione was ADDED to BP regimen -- it should have been the first med given.
3)Lasix for BP control. I explained why that wasn't a wise choice. That's why the guy had to take occassional second doses to keep BP down.
1) OP was given Hctz and apparently no attention was given to his K levels until he developed sumptoms. Fortunately his first symptom wasn't a fatal dysrhythmia.
2) Chlorthalidione was ADDED to BP regimen -- it should have been the first med given.
3)Lasix for BP control. I explained why that wasn't a wise choice. That's why the guy had to take occassional second doses to keep BP down.
First three posts-- three mistakes.
Again, you don't know the history.
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. But there is no argument from me that life styles, including diet and regular exercise go a long way in keeping blood pressure under control. Works well for other chronic conditions as well.
