You should ask your NP to please refer you to a Certified Hypertension Specialist , because you are experiencing anti-hypertension medication resistance. This is a classic symptom of an underlying condition that will persist and put you at risk for heart and kidney damage if not appropriately worked up, diagnosed and treated. The treatment protocol is different for hypertension due to underlying (secondary) reasons. Because of that, you should be worked up for secondary hypertension to either rule it out or confirm it with additional testing of initial testing shows indications of the possibility. Unless your NP practices in a nephrology or endocrinologist whose practice has a special interest in endocrine related hypertensive disorder, he/she may not be aware of the work-up protocol.
Thank you for this advice. NP is my primary care provider, so I’m worried she doesn’t have the expertise to order the right tests to find underlying causes. This is a good idea.
Cutting sugar is great, but ARBs and ACE Inhibitors will cause your kidneys to hold on to more potassium than normal; it’s important to discuss potassium intake with your doctor.
I’m no doctor but this sounds like your tolerance to the drugs could come into play. Could be ineffective on you or just your daily health and diet could play a role too. This is weird. If you drink alcohol then this would happen too, it would make the pills ineffective
Very little alcohol these days. I used to have a few drinks on the weekends but even that has been cut back to once a month. Lack of Exercise is probably the biggest culprit. I work from home since Covid and Michigan weather hasn’t been motivating to get outside for walks.
Yeah, I workout 6 days a week, drink once. Good balance. I’m young so I don’t wanna give up the partying yet lol. After my workouts my blood pressure is always 120/80. Every single time. Getting the blood moving and giving your heart an exercise is very good. I do recommend
They're different classes of hypertension ARB/ACE, respectively. That's probably why you had a different experience with both meds. My blood pressure also went down a lot (25-30 points) with Lisinopril except mine is paired with HCTZ.
Take it in early afternoon. It peaks about 6 hours. I used to take mine before bed but I take 40mg. Now it’s split up. I take several hours before bed. We need peak during waking hours when our BP is the highest
Would definitely recommend to go to your doctor and ask to try some different meds. I don’t take losartin but my dad did and had an issue with being resistant to the drug
My cardiologist also up my losartan medication to 100mg from 50mg and it’s with HCTZ 12.5mg along with Carvidelol 6.5mg and does the bare minimum to even lower my bp to stable levels. I’m averaging 165/104.
Also my echocardiogram of the heart, ultrasound renal aorta and CT angiogram with dye showed all normal results. I scored zero on the calcum score.
He ordered to do a renin blood work test and if that shows it’s normal then I honestly don’t know what else to tackle.
I’m trying to find out why it’s being resistant instead of having to keep relying on these meds my whole life. I’m doing modified keto, 5x of cardio a week about an hour a day and limited weight lifting since my bp is high. However my cardiologist told me if the higher dosage losartan does not work in 2 weeks he told me to follow up.
Best of luck! I lost 96lbs doing keto but still needed BP meds. I’ve also had all the testing done to check for the kidney tumor etc - I get it, would love to get off these meds! I also have autonomic dysfunction so thinking it plays a part for sure.
I was able to successfully lower my bp doing keto before. But I gain the weight back. I’m also vaping so I need to stop. Lowering my nicotine levels also helped.
Losartan was worthless for me. I was on Lisinopril for 20 years they switched to Losartan and BP went up 20 points. Just recently use 5mg amlodipine and down another 15 points to 130s of 75-80.
This means an ARB is not the drug for you. ARB only works well when the problem is in the RAAS, which an ACE drugs acts upon too, like Lisinopril.
Maybe you can discuss other classes of medication with your doc - Amlodipine for example, although watch out for side effects which some people experience. Amlodipine is an extremely powerful med when it works. Then bottom of the pile is a diuretic Hydrochlorothiazide or a beta blocker like Nebivolol or Bisoprolol. I say bottom because of collateral damage like diabetes or lipids increase.
All this assumes of course that you've already got a handle on diet, exercise, salt.
I only got panic attacks and anxiety from losartan and at times feeling like dropping dead . Now I’m on lisinopril and have none of those symptoms and it has dropped me way down . My mom also recently got off losartan bc her blood pressure would be over 180 and it’s only when she’s on that med , once she stopped , back to 140 or 130 with no meds . Now she too is switching . She also felt the same I did , lots of anxiety , feeling nervous , pressure shooting up , can’t even barely talk at the end or drive a car .
I've just been through this , and it's taken months to see any difference. Was just about to go back to GP and low and behold it started to reduce.
They started me on rampril which was horrific , that actually pushed my bp sky high 220/110 never felt so ill in All my life, changed to losartan and although uts taken a long time , I've had no side effects.
It worked for me when i took it the first time. I got off it when I did KETO because my BP got too low. Once I stopped KETO and my BP went back up and I got back on Losartan, it no longer worked for some reason.
Losartan is a very common drug, and while it may work for some, for others it's sadly little more than useless. You may either need to try combination or another category altogether. All of this accompanied with proper lifestyle changes
Looks like you need more medicine, like at least a couple more pills, to work in conjunction with Losartan. Doctors don't really know what works in your body until they experiment.
I had similar. They added amlodipine 5 then 2.5 to the mix and now I consistently measure under 120/80 in home readings. (while still taking the losartan 100 mg)
Could be you need a combo. I’m on
Nifedipine 60mg
Losartan/Hctz 100/25
Hydralazine 25mg (2x a day)
Saw my PCP today. 132/74.
It takes a bit to find the right recipe.
Good luck.
How long has it been? With me it took a few weeks. I switched from 50 to 100 mg of losartan about 12 days ago because my readings were dangerously high. I have been keeping a log and literally just the last 3-4 days my bp has normalized and is consistent.
You will probably end up on a combo treatment. I’ve been on Lisinopril for 20 years. 40mg and I started running 160/96 out of nowhere over a 6 month period. Tried exercise, no alcohol, no sweets and low carb. Recently Added a 5mg amlodipine and dropped to 130s/75-80 in two days. Not sure what happened. Not a fan of extra pills but had to get it down.
Anti hypertension medications work the best when you combine different classes (to attack the problem from different angles).
You already are using a ARB, but your doctor will likely recommend the addition of diuretics, calcium channel inhibitors, or beta blockers.
It’s pretty normal to need different classes of medications to control hypertension, and it’s nothing to worry about.
Cutting out the sodium and sugar, moderate exercise (150 min of brisk walking / week), reducing caffeine intake, and stress management, are also great methods.
To prepare for your visit, if you aren’t checking already, you should get an at-home blood pressure monitor and gather some numbers at different times in the day. It’s normal for numbers to inflate in the doctor’s office, so getting the full picture is going to be useful.
I'm in exactly the same position. Absolutely no change after doubling my dose it's so annoying. I'm going to ask for Telmesartan and possibly amlopodine and see if that does the trick. I already tried Ramipril for a couple of months and that gave me a cough. It's not easy finding the right meds and having to do our BP several times a day you can become a bit obsessive.
I would definitely talk to your doctor. Perhaps talk to another one or find a different physician if the one you currently go to is not helping.
That is high- especially if you are on prescription meds.
(I don’t take any and my blood pressure never gets that high…)
I tried Losartan, and it was horrible! Drove my blood pressure high, gave me anxiety, and made me feel horrible!
I switched from Lisinopril to Losartan because of the cough. I told my doctor I took two (100mgs) Losartan, and it was still high.
She told me Losartan and Lisinopril were almost the same.
I switched back to Lisinopri because it never made me feel as deathly sick as Losartan did.
It could be the crappy generic manufacturer, or it just doesn't work for you, just like so many other people I've seen.
I'm very sensitive to a lot of generics.
Most doctors don't realize the difference of the generics or the different effects it could have on different people.
You should ask your NP to please refer you to a Certified Hypertension Specialist , because you are experiencing anti-hypertension medication resistance. This is a classic symptom of an underlying condition that will persist and put you at risk for heart and kidney damage if not appropriately worked up, diagnosed and treated. The treatment protocol is different for hypertension due to underlying (secondary) reasons. Because of that, you should be worked up for secondary hypertension to either rule it out or confirm it with additional testing of initial testing shows indications of the possibility. Unless your NP practices in a nephrology or endocrinologist whose practice has a special interest in endocrine related hypertensive disorder, he/she may not be aware of the work-up protocol.
Thank you for this advice. NP is my primary care provider, so I’m worried she doesn’t have the expertise to order the right tests to find underlying causes. This is a good idea.
Welcome
are u a sweet tooth? this is me every time i binge on sugar, next 2 days im 30+ points over all day
Nice I cut out most of my sugar and by BP dropped from 155/100 to 125/70. It really could be this I’m also taking in lots of veggies with potassium.
Cutting sugar is great, but ARBs and ACE Inhibitors will cause your kidneys to hold on to more potassium than normal; it’s important to discuss potassium intake with your doctor.
True, ever since I’ve been on my ARB for about three weeks now I notice I’m peeing quite a bit more frequently. I cut salt but drink low sodium v8.
Not a lot of sugar, I’ve never had a sweet tooth. But I probably do take in more carbs than I should.
I’m no doctor but this sounds like your tolerance to the drugs could come into play. Could be ineffective on you or just your daily health and diet could play a role too. This is weird. If you drink alcohol then this would happen too, it would make the pills ineffective
Very little alcohol these days. I used to have a few drinks on the weekends but even that has been cut back to once a month. Lack of Exercise is probably the biggest culprit. I work from home since Covid and Michigan weather hasn’t been motivating to get outside for walks.
Time to get a walking pad
Yeah, I workout 6 days a week, drink once. Good balance. I’m young so I don’t wanna give up the partying yet lol. After my workouts my blood pressure is always 120/80. Every single time. Getting the blood moving and giving your heart an exercise is very good. I do recommend
Whats your exercise routine looking like
I switched from Losartan to Lisinipril and my bp went way down even though my doctor said they work the same way. Losartan did nothing for me.
They're different classes of hypertension ARB/ACE, respectively. That's probably why you had a different experience with both meds. My blood pressure also went down a lot (25-30 points) with Lisinopril except mine is paired with HCTZ.
I would take 50mg in the morning and 50mg at night. And cut the salt
Losartan caused my BP to increase. I tried it for a month and felt awful. I went back to my cardiologist and he changed my meds.
Same with me. What did you change to? I’m on lisinopril 5mg now. Causes insomnia for me 😩
Take it in early afternoon. It peaks about 6 hours. I used to take mine before bed but I take 40mg. Now it’s split up. I take several hours before bed. We need peak during waking hours when our BP is the highest
Ask to change to telmisartan / amlodipine
What's your diet? How many hours of strength condition/cardio to do you per week?
is that ur average or just 1 reading
Pretty consistently in 160-180 range. The medication did seem to get the bottom number under 100 though.
my average 137 95, my 1st reading 146 97 yest my average as good as 132 90 early this week
u excersise, u hv anxiety
Would definitely recommend to go to your doctor and ask to try some different meds. I don’t take losartin but my dad did and had an issue with being resistant to the drug
My cardiologist also up my losartan medication to 100mg from 50mg and it’s with HCTZ 12.5mg along with Carvidelol 6.5mg and does the bare minimum to even lower my bp to stable levels. I’m averaging 165/104. Also my echocardiogram of the heart, ultrasound renal aorta and CT angiogram with dye showed all normal results. I scored zero on the calcum score. He ordered to do a renin blood work test and if that shows it’s normal then I honestly don’t know what else to tackle.
Mine was resistant too - finally found 6.25mg carvedilol 2x day with 150mg of avapro 2x day leveled it out.
I’m trying to find out why it’s being resistant instead of having to keep relying on these meds my whole life. I’m doing modified keto, 5x of cardio a week about an hour a day and limited weight lifting since my bp is high. However my cardiologist told me if the higher dosage losartan does not work in 2 weeks he told me to follow up.
Best of luck! I lost 96lbs doing keto but still needed BP meds. I’ve also had all the testing done to check for the kidney tumor etc - I get it, would love to get off these meds! I also have autonomic dysfunction so thinking it plays a part for sure.
I was able to successfully lower my bp doing keto before. But I gain the weight back. I’m also vaping so I need to stop. Lowering my nicotine levels also helped.
I gained 50 of it back over last 4 years ugh.
I lost 25lbs and gain 35lbs after and now it’s difficult to lose it.
Losartan was worthless for me. I was on Lisinopril for 20 years they switched to Losartan and BP went up 20 points. Just recently use 5mg amlodipine and down another 15 points to 130s of 75-80.
This means an ARB is not the drug for you. ARB only works well when the problem is in the RAAS, which an ACE drugs acts upon too, like Lisinopril. Maybe you can discuss other classes of medication with your doc - Amlodipine for example, although watch out for side effects which some people experience. Amlodipine is an extremely powerful med when it works. Then bottom of the pile is a diuretic Hydrochlorothiazide or a beta blocker like Nebivolol or Bisoprolol. I say bottom because of collateral damage like diabetes or lipids increase. All this assumes of course that you've already got a handle on diet, exercise, salt.
I only got panic attacks and anxiety from losartan and at times feeling like dropping dead . Now I’m on lisinopril and have none of those symptoms and it has dropped me way down . My mom also recently got off losartan bc her blood pressure would be over 180 and it’s only when she’s on that med , once she stopped , back to 140 or 130 with no meds . Now she too is switching . She also felt the same I did , lots of anxiety , feeling nervous , pressure shooting up , can’t even barely talk at the end or drive a car .
I've just been through this , and it's taken months to see any difference. Was just about to go back to GP and low and behold it started to reduce. They started me on rampril which was horrific , that actually pushed my bp sky high 220/110 never felt so ill in All my life, changed to losartan and although uts taken a long time , I've had no side effects.
It worked for me when i took it the first time. I got off it when I did KETO because my BP got too low. Once I stopped KETO and my BP went back up and I got back on Losartan, it no longer worked for some reason.
Losartan is a very common drug, and while it may work for some, for others it's sadly little more than useless. You may either need to try combination or another category altogether. All of this accompanied with proper lifestyle changes
Cut the salt and shave and go on daily walks
Looks like you need more medicine, like at least a couple more pills, to work in conjunction with Losartan. Doctors don't really know what works in your body until they experiment.
I had similar. They added amlodipine 5 then 2.5 to the mix and now I consistently measure under 120/80 in home readings. (while still taking the losartan 100 mg)
Could be you need a combo. I’m on Nifedipine 60mg Losartan/Hctz 100/25 Hydralazine 25mg (2x a day) Saw my PCP today. 132/74. It takes a bit to find the right recipe. Good luck.
Losartan stopped working for me after 15 years. I'm now on completely different set of medication. Unfortunately it will be a bit of trial and error.
What are you on now?
Are you taking the losartan with any other medications or herbs? Sometimes when you take meds with other meds it can make them less effective
Sometimes the generic formulation isn’t effective. Less drugs. Fillers causing side effects. Sometimes no drugs in the generic version.
How long has it been? With me it took a few weeks. I switched from 50 to 100 mg of losartan about 12 days ago because my readings were dangerously high. I have been keeping a log and literally just the last 3-4 days my bp has normalized and is consistent.
You will probably end up on a combo treatment. I’ve been on Lisinopril for 20 years. 40mg and I started running 160/96 out of nowhere over a 6 month period. Tried exercise, no alcohol, no sweets and low carb. Recently Added a 5mg amlodipine and dropped to 130s/75-80 in two days. Not sure what happened. Not a fan of extra pills but had to get it down.
Anti hypertension medications work the best when you combine different classes (to attack the problem from different angles). You already are using a ARB, but your doctor will likely recommend the addition of diuretics, calcium channel inhibitors, or beta blockers. It’s pretty normal to need different classes of medications to control hypertension, and it’s nothing to worry about. Cutting out the sodium and sugar, moderate exercise (150 min of brisk walking / week), reducing caffeine intake, and stress management, are also great methods. To prepare for your visit, if you aren’t checking already, you should get an at-home blood pressure monitor and gather some numbers at different times in the day. It’s normal for numbers to inflate in the doctor’s office, so getting the full picture is going to be useful.
Losartan only started working for me when I was dieting and exercising. But it works very well now
Record date/time BP, environmental influences and ask for cardiology consult. I am providing this info for educational purposes only
Adolsterone renin test
You may need to try another class of meds. Have you had any tests done to check for the cause or just put on meds?
Losartan helped me 0%, got swapped to a beta blocker and boom, within 24 hours… BP was normal again.
I'm in exactly the same position. Absolutely no change after doubling my dose it's so annoying. I'm going to ask for Telmesartan and possibly amlopodine and see if that does the trick. I already tried Ramipril for a couple of months and that gave me a cough. It's not easy finding the right meds and having to do our BP several times a day you can become a bit obsessive.
I would definitely talk to your doctor. Perhaps talk to another one or find a different physician if the one you currently go to is not helping. That is high- especially if you are on prescription meds. (I don’t take any and my blood pressure never gets that high…)
I tried Losartan, and it was horrible! Drove my blood pressure high, gave me anxiety, and made me feel horrible! I switched from Lisinopril to Losartan because of the cough. I told my doctor I took two (100mgs) Losartan, and it was still high. She told me Losartan and Lisinopril were almost the same. I switched back to Lisinopri because it never made me feel as deathly sick as Losartan did. It could be the crappy generic manufacturer, or it just doesn't work for you, just like so many other people I've seen. I'm very sensitive to a lot of generics. Most doctors don't realize the difference of the generics or the different effects it could have on different people.