The Fear of Going Off Medication…
I recently asked Dr. Saunders this:
QUESTION:
“Could you give me an idea of how someone currently taking prescribed medication can slowly get off drugs using our natural remedies?
My mom, for example, is taking HBP meds and is afraid of just quitting them cold turkey… how can someone like her slowly reduce them, and finally be off them for good?
Same would go for people on Nexium for reflux, depression drugs, etc.
ANSWER BY DR. SAUNDERS:
Some drugs you can just stop without any detriment, and others need to be weaned. It depends on the drug, the dose, and the length of time taking it. This is the advantage of having a medical doctor help with the specific problem. Many depression medications cause discomfort if stopped suddenly. However, even in this case it’s highly variable.
Generally, since hypertension isn’t a problem over days, weeks or months, but rather years or decades it isn’t a problem to stop anti-hypertensives. Some may get rapid heartbeats (if they were on a beta blocker, for example). There are ways around this, though with Hawthorne berry and magnesium.
You mentioned the realproblem — fear. Those who believe the drug company propaganda will have a phobia of not taking medications. I have a patient who uses a walker because she gets dizzy every time she stands up — a side-effect of her blood pressure medication, but since she’s gripped by fear every time I try to take her off of them, she won’t quit.
If you teach the truth, the fear goes away and many are willing to take responsibility for their own health and will automatically stop taking them.
The second important part is to have a replacement. Not necessarily a pill, but something that fills the need. Voltaire said, “The difference between man and the animals is man’s need to take pills.” OK, use a pill for the anxious who need to “do something.”
A more useful thing long-term is to change the lifestyle (exercise habits and food choices) which changes the whole organism and improves life and health.
Dr. S
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If you have any questions or success stories about going off medications, please share them with others by leaving a comment to this blog posting in the box below. Let’s start a conversation!
Disclaimer: The entire contents of this website are based upon the opinions of Dr. Saunders, unless otherwise noted. Individual answers are based upon the opinions of the respective author, who retains copyright as marked. The information on this website is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional and is not intended as medical advice. It is intended as a sharing of knowledge and information from the research and experience of Dr. Saunders and his community. Dr. Saunders encourages you to make your own health care decisions based upon your research and in partnership with a qualified health care professional.
Comments
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Hello Dr. S. I have used alternatives for high chlorestoral, telling my doctor. Using Flax seed my blood test showed my good overcame the bad. Which sounds like I still have the bad. How does that work? Is it okay to keep this regiment up? I don’t want to take meds. Beverly
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I totally agree with Dr Saunders.I´ve been following the advice of NATURAL REMEDIES and getting off drugs, no more Enalapril, just fruits and exercise and WOW ! it´s been 115/76 for four days already.Isn´t that wonderful.So I can say NO FEAR WE CAN CONTROL OUR BODY BECAUSE WE ARE GODS.
Go ahead.I can do it, you can do it.
Billy from Costa Rica.
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Addressing the negatively reinforcing behavior of continuing to take medications for fear that not taking them will result in the return of the problem for which the medication was first given, is an excellent niche area that is seldom addressed by anyone from the medical profession.
In point of fact, very few medical practitioners know little if anything about negatively reinforcing behaviors.
I urge you to continue with this area of concern and educate people to the remedy of this problem behavior.
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I would love to find a natural alternative like Natto to replace the coumadin blood thinner I take for my mechanical heart valve. My cardiologist has great fear of switching to Natto and says absolutely not because I would have a blood clot – stroke and die. I have taken coumadin (rat poison) for 20+ years now. Has anyone else out there in this world been able to switch?
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Itake crestor and I would like to get off this (dose is 10 grams per night)
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I am trying to get off a beta blocker, Metoporlol, 12.5 mg twice a day…every few days though, at abround 7-8PM, I’ll get rushing heart rates (normal resting Hrt rate is 65-70) and it goes up to 90-100 and last for about 30-60 minutes…is this the beta blocker doing this?
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3 Years ago I started having heart palpatations. I had been on Propranol for about 15 years for mitrol valve prolapse; so the Dr. said I should increase my dosage. It didn’t help; so the Dr. kept uping my dosage until I had gone from 10mg a day to 80mg, and the palpatations were getting worse.
Luckily I ordered a book called Alternative Prescriptions, and when I looked up Propranol, guess what one of the symptons of the drug is heart palpatations. I bought all the alternative supplements they recommended including, CoQ10, hawthorn, fish oil etc. stopped the Propranol, and within a few days no more palpatations. I also no longer have mitrol valve prolapse, and most of my leaky valves have sealed. NO ONE can tell me that natural remedies don’t work. My husband and I no longer take any prescriptions, but we takes lots of vitamins and supplements. My husband controls his Cholesterol with all natural remedies. -
Wow I wish I could get off BP meds. Fear wont turn me loose. I now take magnesium, calcium, and some potassium. I feel better than I have for a long time. I hate taking meds. I have had so much trouble with my BP, that I am so afraid to go off of the meds.
Keep giving us encouragement. I read every ounce of it. I do eat lots of fruit.
Thank you so much.
Jean Ankrom -
hi i have had two heart attacks and i have sugar and i have 7 stents in my arties and i am 65 years old and i have ed also. i have stoped all mt pills at one time and did not have any set back. but i do know that theses pills i take does not cure any thing and i take a asprin aday also. i would like to find a pill the will do every thing instead of buying a 100 different pills for every thing i have. i take liptor for for chlorestoral and they are giving me two blood pressure pills for my heart and i never had high blood pressure in my life but i am sure i have it now. but people like me are on a fixed income from social security so matter what we are domed to die one way or other. but i would like to know more about medicines that will cure not just to take to stay a live. i told my doctor that i could not perform like a man should making love can’t even get it up any more and all he did was laugh and say it will only get worst as you go. i have heart burn all the time. but i wish there was one pill for every thing it would be so easyer.
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My son has been on an antidepressant and antipsychotic drug for several years and it is very difficult to get him to entertain the possibility that the anxiety etc. he experiences when he goes off these drugs need to be viewed not automatically as a recurrence of the initial depression but rather as withdrawal symptoms. All the doctors he contacts merely prescribe additional dosages of the drugs. There is a definite lack of informed, experienced councelling. I suggest readers take a look at the article: ‘Talking Back to Prozak’ by Frederick Crews in the Dec.6th, 2007 edition of The New York Review of Books. (Big Pharma doesn’t just bend the rules; it buys the rulebook.) The problem is extensively and fairly analyzed but people like you will have to come up with the help people like my son need.
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Lot of scare statistic of the antidepressant drugs:
http://www.ssristories.com/index.php
Please, share this for everybody in your file, because
15% of schoolchildren are user of those devastating drugs.
So, you never know who is going to cut your throat or shoot
your friends. -
I have been on Nardil (MAO Inhibitor) antidepressant for panic disorder since 1986 and never had any problems. I used to take 2 Nardil tablets a day. I also take Synthroid for hypothyroid for little over 10 years and couple of years ago I went through 3 doctors because they kept leaving the medical center and each one kept telling me to increase, decrease, increase, decrease my thyroid meds and they also changed the brand few times, from Synthroid, to Levoxyl (they removed the coating from pill and made me very sick), to Unithroid, and then I asked doctor to put me back on Synthroid. I think I was on 150 or 137 mcg when I got sick. The last doctor at this medical center had told me to decrease my Synthroid and I didn’t listen because I was tired of the up and down of the dose of Synthroid. Few weeks later I was so sick and went to emergency room but they didn’t do anything and I went home sick. I should have decreased my Synthroid when my doctor told me to. I was so sick I ended up stop taking the Synthroid for like a week or so and my TSH went up to 65. So I had to go back on Synthroid and I started at 25 mcg and my body couldn’t handle the 25 mcg. I was getting severe jitters and nervousness. I was so upset I couldn’t even take that low dose. I decided to break it in half and take the 12 mcg and it worked. Then I slowly tried to increase to 25 mcg and still couldn’t tolerate it. I was thinking maybe my body was rejecting it being I didn’t decrease it like I was supposed to. So I spoke to a gastroenterologist about it and she said try to reduce my Nardil. So that’s when I went from 2 Nardil tablets a day to 1 tablet a day. Then finally I was able to start increasing my Synthroid. It took me about a year to go from 25 mcg to 125 mcg. I felt hypothyroid on that dose of 125 mcg still. Years later I found a brand new internist doctor outside the medical center to help me with my thyroid meds. Bad experience with him, He had me go to 150 mcg and I got sick again. He wanted me to go from 150 mcg to 200 mcg a day of Synthroid in 3 weeks time and take Cytomel also. I was so jittery on Synthroid on just one pill of 150 mcg that I was too afraid to increase and to take the Cytomel, so I never took it. He said try taking 75 mcg in morning and 75 mcg at night instead. That worked but only lasted 4 months. So I left him and found an endocrinologist and he put me back on 137 mcg of Synthroid. I been on 137 mcg few months and the jitters came back. Even though I was getting the jitters my TSH was always still a little high like 7.53 but t3 and t4 and everything else was normal. When I was on 150 mcg my TSH was normal and t3 and t4 was normal but my t3free was low. I also noticed that my iron saturation levels would get too too low the more I increase the Synthroid. The lowest was 7% even when taking vitamins but all my other iron levels and hemoglobin were normal. My B12 blood level always super high like 1400. All these years I been always taking Centrum multivitamins and started to take Calcium from Citrate with it. I had learned by taking the vitamins after my thyroid meds would rid of my jitters so I continued. So we’re talking about this month now on 137 mcg, take the vitamins about 2 hours later which I know you’re not supposed to, then I would take a 1/8th of a 50 mcg Synthroid (approximately 6 mcg plus 137 mcg totalling 143 mcg) at night which I had from my latest doctor and that would make me feel less hypo at night from the vitamins blocking. The vitamins block Synthroid absorption and helped rid my jitters. Anyway, sorry so confusing but it’s about 5 months later and my blood pressure went up to 160/90 and laying down went to 140/90. So I called and left message to my endocrinologist please can I go from 143 to 125 mcg of Synthroid and for me to stop taking my vitamins altogether thinking maybe it’s giving me a false TSH reading. He didn’t call me till days later and I couldn’t wait so I lowered my Synthroid myself to 100 mcg. I went too low and now having a hard time increasing back up to 125 mcg of Synthroid. I wonder if my Nardil is causing my poor toleration to Synthroid increases. Being the manufacturer reformulated the Nardil I am so afraid of getting off of it and don’t know what to do. I was thinking of getting off it in case it was causing my synthroid problems. I bought books on safely withdrawing from antidepressants and believe it or not they didn’t have info on Nardil. It even said it in the book it didn’t have info for Nardil to withdraw safely. I don’t know what to do. I am only on 1 a day, 15 mg of Nardil I remember on the old (before it was reformulated) Nardil I weaned off so easily with no problems. I had to wean off because I had gall bladder surgery but something about the new Nardil scares me. I can’t handle being jittery every morning every time I take Synthroid and having high TSH readings and not knowing what causes it. The jitters would start about 1 hour and 1/2 to 2 hours after taking the Synthroid. I take Nardil about 3 hours later. I forgot to mention that I started taking ferrous sulfate 325 mg, my primary doctor told me to. None of my doctors have the answer about the jitters. The vitamins help but can’t take it too close to Synthroid. Hope to hear from you if you have an idea. Thanks for letting me submit comment here. Am so terribly sorry that it’s so long and confusing but I went through all of this too long. Thanks.
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Good news about these natural supplements. we in the other part of the world (Africa) don’t have acess to these supplement easily. please expand your services via an agent or representative so that we can also benefit from these supplement. I have gain alot from your lecture on natural ways of improving your health especially articles on high pb.
please continue your good work -
I have been taking benzodiazapams for over 10 years now to control panic attacks after being diagnosed with hypertension at the age of 33. I am now 44 and am still taking them along with my tenormin and Hyzaar. I excercise 6 days a week, lifting and stair machine. It helps when I am working out or busy, the anxiety sets in when am idle. How can I get off the anxiety pills called Calmepam. The BP meds do not bother me, there are no side affects that I notice so I am not worried about them. Thank you!
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My fear is actually the taking of the Blood Pressure tabs. I am aware that they have side effects and that the side effects actually are worse than the pressure itself and most of the time the tab don’t work that well anyway, or work sometimes then stop working then you have to change the tabs. So I fear the long term side effects. I would like a way to stop them altogether by taking something else natural with no side effects along with a sensible diet and exercise. Any help out there???? I live in The Bahamas.
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My sister took thyroid meds for years. She never had any children for 8 yrs of her married life because of the shortage of thyroid, or at least wasn’t till she got on them that she was able to bear children finally.
She ended up dying of breast cancer. My dr at clinic told me when I went for pap smear and breast exam that he wouldn’t recommend women taking it because of just those side effects. So people check the results of deaths from taking blood pressure meds and Thyroid to see how many die of the use of it. I was talking to a leader in my business and she told me she faithfully gave her dad his meds for BP. Shockingly the Dr told her when her dad had heart attack that “Those meds are only a placebo” THAT BLOOD PRESSURE PILLS WILL EVENTUALLY KILL YOU.
So she got herself into a good vitamin company and is helping others avoid the same mistakes of taking BP pills. Even water pills imbalance the body. You can get rid of extra body fluids by taking Alfalfa and Magnesium. Lecithin also helps alot with all body functions. I would not be without my Omega’s either. Fish oils can be a better Vitamin supplement in Cod Liver oil or Omega oils in capsules. Good for my sons pain in his chest which wasn’t his heart at all. Whatever the dr called it still scared him. Now he takes it faithfully every day and not had one bit of trouble since, but DR also told him “People drink away their health by drinking soda pop”. So now he’s quit drinking Mt Dew and other pops for the phosphorus is tearing down the enamel of our teeth and these children coming along will never have good teeth if they continue on the diets that are out there in schools and fast food systems.
My own diabetic condition I am controlling with Walking, drinking lots of water,(I never was a thisty diabetic)and changing my food intake to just fuel me not OVEREAT! I don’t eat much bread nor candy or junk foods. I eat lots of raw foods and enjoy nuts and those are my treats.
I just love a green Romaine salad with lemon pepper on it and dab of olive oil. You don’t need all them dressings with sugar and junk in them.
Hope I have helped someone.
Believe in your instincts. Make the change to Live. -
My Doctor has prescribed blood pressure medication, Lipitor and an anti-depressant. I also take Pariet for GERD. My blood pressure and cholesterol are normal and have been for at least two years but she insists I should not stop the drugs. I have stopped the Lipitor because of side effects I read about. The anti-depresant also has side effects, most of which I have and am not enjoying. And I am going to stop the blood pressure medication (Avapro) and monitor carefully to see what happens. I am not afraid to go off these meds, it’s the Doctor who is afraid to let me stop. I know the anti-depressant must be stopped slowly.
Dr. Juian Whitaker recommends daily 12 oz. of low sodium V8 juice for blood pressure. It is very high in potassium so I am drinking this and also taking apple cider vinegar for the GERD.
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It makes me feel better by knowing that I am not alone with very high blood pressure, but i may be the only one that nothing seems to help, I have been using herbal supplements for about 40 years.
in 1988 I joined Sunrider Iternational because of leg prolems after taking all the drugs on the market and no more drugs to be prescribed and no more specialist to consult my doctor told me to buy a wheell chair, soon after I started with Sunrider taking a pill from each of the 5 botles I start
walking again, Later I stop buying from Sunrider because was too expensive for me, so I went back to the health food shop I got friendly with the shopkeeper and I buy a lot from him. Now for the last 4 or 5 years I found out that the dys. blood pressure was too low I went to see my doctor and he said tha the syst. was too high he put me on altace, I was not sick before but I start to be sick
I start to have back pain to the point I couldn’t walk ,chiropratic adjustment couldn’t help massagers did not help, to make matters worth the doctor increse my dose from 2.5 to 5 mg. that’s when I became realy sick. I went on line to check out the drug it was terrible what I saw I stop the pills rightway My sickness disapear,Three year ago he send me for a stress test it was no good the cardiologist gave me a10% chance to die of a heart attack I told him that I was taking my 90% chance I did not fill the prescription the same thing with crestor and lipitor I just get realy sick
when taking drugs I do not find a natural supplement that lowers my syst. pressure that goes between 155/180 at presentI take 150mg grape seed extract,coQ10 60mg 2/3 times a day, Hawthorn berry 550mg2/3 times Magnesium and Potassium Aspartate 300/90mg I can feel and hear the blood pressure pounding on my ears I may tell you that I an over 77 year old I lost 12lb in the last 3 months I eat right lots of fruits and vegies no booz or pop half glass of red wine at meal time thank for your time reading it , Pardon my english I am portuguese I did not go to an english school,I am self tought on the computer if someone have any idea how to reduce my bloo pressure
please let me know thank you.
Luis Fornalha Toronto Canada December 15 07 8.30pm -
I want to come off meprobamate and flurazepam. Mep may be discontinued by mfr anyway, but I know from past experience it’s hard to get off anything! I just can’t sleep enough. 2-3 hours sleep per night is not enough for FMS! I am reading Dr. Peter Breggin’s book on getting off meds, and it’s great, but I still hate the coming off. He suggests VERY slow withdrawal (i.e., 1/7th every week or month or what works for the patient so NO effect is felt). I may not have a chance to withdraw slowly from meprobamate as it’s out of manufacture due to some component not being available just now. They will keep making it when they get it. It keeps anxiety, depression, and just icky feelings at bay, and I’ve used these things for a long time. Meprobamate came out as Miltown and then Equanil (old drug). I know flurazepam is a booger to get off. One of the worst so I have gone to 7 mg. once or twice evening and during night. I’ll work on that more. Just concerned about meprobamate. I think my brain has a very special key/lock for it. 😉
I also have hypertension but meds make me quite ill due to FMS so I have to get my walking in high gear again, eat even better, meditate and a lot more things. I have been on Tenormin for eons for MVP (not the kind that needs special care or antibiotics it turns out). I notice if I take the recommended dose of 50 mg/day I have some palpitations but the worst is severe depression after the 2nd day or so. I take 25 mg. In Breggin’s book I found that Tenormin is also like a psychotropic drug, and it made me mad no one told me! I got atrial fibrillation after a severe hemorrhage about this time of year 2003 so they try to scare me about taking lots of meds for heart and pressure to avoid stroke and heart attack. I finally said “I have very strong blood vessels!” If they make me too sick to get up and around why bother?
Something else I was put on for FM pain plus post-surgical pain (four in a few years; three of them inside of 18 months, two of which were the result of bad sutures!!!!!!!!), and it’s all that usually works for nasty pain. I have a wonderful chiropractor and physical therapist, and I know if I can return to a full program of activity (post-op problems still as just too much happened) I will probably have a lot less pain. The PT is letting me read a book about pain (remembered pain; fearful pain; real pain and so on). I didn’t realize we can actually hurt due to recent or even old injury. Very interesting stuff to study.
If anyone has ideas for me I’d love to read it. How will I know if I am answered? Guess I won’t know the answer to that even, huh? 🙂 I don’t know how to find things quickly here yet. Oh, I need to mention I’m 70 (going on about 50 according to those who know/see me). Have long genes in both sides of my family. Tough lot we are. I am also reading Wayne Dyer’s books. WOW! If you have not read this dear man, do so quickly! I’m into his “There is a Spiritual Solution For All Your Problems.” It’s not about religion. Spiritual is more like philosophy of life. All we need to be healthy and well is in that one small book, but it takes a long time to “get it” inside our heads. The gist is that WE ARE WHAT WE THINK. We can think most anything into or out of our lives. And yet we hang onto old ways out of habit and fear. Hope someone grabs Dyer’s works if you have not already. He’s a lifesaver. Now to “get it.” I have all the right stuff here online and around me here at home, and yet I have to work hard to get everything done that would make me lots more healthy. I’m highly emotive (intuitive), and I can get sick if toxic people are in my area, and that area can be a very wide one!! I’ve finally figured it out personally just this past week due to something that happened with a toxic person who is now far away from our area! She was making me sick because I did not understand this concept. AND we can affect the world or any part of it if we think right. Gets heavy to read, but it’s worth the effort.
Let me hear thoughts here, please. I have no support community elsewhere at this time. And I have a daughter (41 years) nearby who is in a LOT of trouble, and I cannot deal with it very much so anything I do can often be sabotaged by her just with how she acts, reacts. She has some mental problems, and it just makes me sick and very sad, but I cannot do anything for her. Makes it hard. She is more of a destroyer than a helper. I wish she could see enough into what she does so that she could be happy and safe (for herself and others) the rest of her life. I have to “let go” in order to be well. Such an unhappy girl. MANY drugs involved (prescribed) that MAY be her problem.
Thanks all! Happy Holidays!!!!
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I am taking an ACE inhibitor, Lisinopril, and a water pill, Hydroclorothyazide. I have been taking these two HBP medications for over 30 years and would like to just wean myself off of these medications. I’ve tried many times to use natural herbs and each time that I try, my blood pressure goes sky high. It bothers me so badly because I definitely would like to relieve myself of the HPB medications, especially the water pill because of the side effects. I’m just at my wits end because I do not want to be on these harsh medicatons. Maybe there is a special way of weaning myself off of them and I just do not know how to do it. Tell me how to get of the meds.
Thank you. -
Hello Dr. Saunders, I currently take Cardizem CD 360 mg and Lisinopril/HCTZ 20-25mg. And 40 mg Lasix.I also take a Triple Nattozime, in place of prescribed Plavix. I had a pacemaker put in, in Feb. 5th, 2007. How can I specificlly get off these meds and switch to only my herbals ONLY. I already take Kyolic Healthy Heart, Vit.E, Hawthorne Berry,Potassium,Triple Magnesium, and Multiple Minerals and Super-Stress Vit.B Complex,and an Omega fish oil capsule.I recently and finally had a check-up and was pronouced “Stablized” for the first time since Dec.7th, 2006 when I had seizures,Bacterial Spinal Meningitis,Life-Support due to respiratory arrest,extremely high BP,an out of body experience, a pace-maker and an irregular heart-beat.Can you help me? My dr. became upset because I took myself off of Coumadin and replaced it with fish oil, vit. E and now the Nattozime.I do not want to end up in the hospital again. ANY suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Sincerely, John Gilbert
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For Frederick: I finally got off my beta-blocker, Nadolol, except occasionally. I started getting increased heartbeat at night after a dose of anesthetic for a throat procedure. When I felt the need increase, my doctor just upped my RX. It took someone else to tell me to take as little as possible, since it works by lowering blood pressure and then the heart compensates by working harder. I started taking it only when I felt it was really necessary, and that helped. So did slightly lowering my Thyroxin dosage (an acupuncturist told me the anesthetic could have gotten my thyroid out of whack).
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Please read and understand what I write is true and proven. My cholesterol was getting high. Having old fashioned Rolled Oates for breakfast brought it down in 6 months. Use whole grains and no packaged cookies or anything not home made. Then came high blood pressure. Out came the Naturapathic books again, started eating celerey, drinking 2 ozs of Pomagranite juice daily, red grapes, Welches all natural grape juice, do NOT add salt to your food, only what it is cooked with. Diet really can do it. 50 year old herbs are much better for the arthritis too. That I have also proven. NO SIDE EFFECTS. Talk it over with your family physician.
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I have high b/p. I’ve been on Diovan, ExForge, Sular and Azor. All except Diovan gave me side effects but heres the problem and hope someone can help. I’ve been off high b/p meds since Jan 2008, eating low salt, low fat and walking. My b/p can get into the 130-140’s and my head burns. At times my whole face, ears and back will burn. I try to lower my salt intake to less than 1500mg, take magnesium, garlic and calcium. Someone please tell me what I am doing wrong.
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I would love to be able to get off my antidepresent and anxiety pills. Been on them forover 20 yrs. I have a fear of getting off them because now they’re apart of me,but they’re causing me BIG side effects that I can now longer handle. Don’t know what to do.
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I have been on meprobamate for the last 58 years. I had fourteen fragmaents drive into my brain by shrapmetal during WWll. I am 85 years old and was wondering if there is any way safely that I could taper of and take something else. I have alot of trouble with walking,balance, muscle jumping and am on renal dialysis. Iexperience chronic weakness and fatigue and on other medications as well. Iam currently trying the get an appointment with the veterns administration hospital in Albany, but the is a long waiting list. If you could help I would be most greatful.
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I’m taking a huge leap of faith in myself this year.
As of next week I am no longer taking my blood pressure medication, pain medication (for knees) or anything else a doctor has prescribed in the last seven years.
I am currently taking Prozac, but will possibly look at getting off that too by the end of June – not to mention getting rid of my shrink because he is terrible and expensive.Ok so you’re wondering why so drastic a step. (hopefully you’re wondering this…)
Seven years ago we came to Bermuda. At that stage I wasn’t taking ANY medications. I had no health issues and was not even overweight.
So I go to a new doctor and he says “oh you have high blood pressure” (first time I ever met the guy and the first time he ever took my blood pressure and that’s his finding).
So I go on hydrochlorothiazide. Over the next seven years I start putting on weight and having problems with gout – high levels of uric acid in my blood. Guess what? Hydrochlorothiazide causes high levels of uric acid which can lead to gout/arthritis. This also leads to problems with your kidneys.
So I take mobic for the pain and the doctor says my kidney pain is “nothing to worry about”. They have a Phd, so I trust them and off I go downing two more pills every day.Turns out that Mobic (after several months of use) leads to bleeding ulcers, depression, fatigue (even weight gain). Because of the gout, the overuse of anti-inflammatory I am now anaemic with a severe drop of iron levels.
Doctor sends me to a specialist and I go on Prozac – which leads to a whole bunch of other side effects that mask the effects of the mobic and low iron levels by the way.
So now, seven years later I’m looking at even more medication…Doctors do not treat the causes of illness – they treat the symptoms. At this rate I will own a pharmacy by the time I’m 50. Anyway, can you see the pattern and how everything is linked?
I’ve started researching all my medication online and I was shocked to see the side effects of so many of the drugs that doctors prescribe without a second thought, and how many of the drugs I’ve been prescribed have led to other problems and even more drugs which caused even more problems.
Anyway, I believe I don’t have high blood pressure. I can treat whatever the drugs have messed up naturally with diet and exercise (and supplements/vitamins).
As for the gout – I can treat that with diet too by increasing my berry intake – cherries, blueberries, strawberries etc. I can also start drinking apple vinegar for that.Anyway, once the drugs are out of my system I believe all my symptoms will go away, I will lose weight, feel healthier and happier and basically feel and look like someone my age is supposed to look and feel.
I’m planning to document the entire experience and see what happens. So wish me luck.
That’s my resolution for 2009 – to get rid of my doctor!
I’m glad you mentioned antidepressants as a drug that causes discomfort when trying to stop them. Some, like me, even have a more difficult and prolonged discontinuation. It took me 2 months to stop Lexapro with severe joint and muscle pain and debilitating dizziness. It also left me with very low cortisol and thyroid function. I take Levoxyl and my Dr. did not raise the dose when I started Lexapro. I’m still dealing with the effects of Lexapro, even though I stopped it 7 months ago. I’ve had low blood pressure, low blood sugar, orthostatic hypotension and severe fatigue. My cortisol levels won’t come back on their own, so I had to start taking Hydrocortisone. Consequently, the thyroid medicine has not been effective so my temps are always low. Taking T3 meds only made it worse.