Blood Pressure Meds (ARBS). Has anyone had a POSITIVE experience?

@lilac2025 I can tell you a little of my journey. At 50, with a stressful joband limited time for exercise, my BP was moderately high and my family histories (both sides) of cardiovascular disease was awful, so I began taking a low dose of losinopril. It was okay except for a nagging cough, which I attributed to, my asthma and allergies. Then I learned it was a common side effects of the medication.

At 57, I had an unfortunate medical situation that caused a very rapid heartbeat, so this was switched to metoprolol. Around that time, my asthma became more difficult to control. Seven years later, in consultation with a clinical pharmacist, my primary did a med review to figure out why I was having so much trouble. It turned out the metoprolol was fighting my asthma meds and I was switched to Losartan.

Losartan hasn't caused any issues, and last year I was diagnosed with coronary artery disease (thank you genetics!) The cardiologist was happy with the BP control the low dose of the drug provided, and didn't change it.

I consider it a success story. I continue to try to maintain a healthy diet and weight, and get good exercise and sleep.

I had an afib episode over 20 years ago in my 50s and was put on 25 mg losartan and 25 mg metoprolol extended release (beta blocker). I reduced the metoprolol to 12.5 for 20 years. I didn’t have another afib episode until 5 years ago and so I upped the metoprolol back up to 25 mg. Both times that I had the afib episode, I had had a very highly stressful event beforehand. Back in my 50s my electrophysiologist/cardiologist tested the heck out of me and determined that my heart was healthy with a slightly leaky valve and he attributed the freak afib episode to the highly stressful event beforehand. But he still recommended that I continue with the two meds. Since the afib episode scared the beejeebers out of me, I did as told, albeit I reduced the beta blocker to 1/2 the amount.

I haven’t had any problems with losartan although I used to suffer badly with restless legs and I read earlier in the year that losartan can exacerbate restless legs. Since having my left hip replaced at age 73, I no longer get restless legs in my left leg. I joke that maybe I could see if Medicare would replace my (perfectly fine) right hip to get rid of the restless leg in that leg. I typically only get it in the evenings when I want to sit down and knit or read. Anyway, I now live in a different state and have a different electrophysiologist/cardiologist and so when I had my annual checkup in February, I asked him if I could try lisinopril to see if my restless leg would get better. He said sure but not to get rid of my losartan. To make a long story short, the lisinopril caused such a horrible, intense post nasal drip, I went back to the Losartan. Only 10% or so people will be affected with post nasal drip on lisinopril and since I wasn’t expecting that side effect, it took me a few months to discover that that was a thing, go back to losartan and get rid of the post nasal drip.

Sorry for this very long story. I wasn’t on lisinopril long enough (3 months maybe) to really say that my restless leg got better. It didn’t during that timeframe. So I would say that I haven’t really had any side effects from taking Losartan. I’ve learned to put a compression sleeve on that calf when it gets restless and that seems to calm it down a lot. Also, since then, I read a report from a doctor (I think his name is Bestermann) who described all the good things that losartan does to your blood vessels in addition to lowering your blood pressure. So I’m very glad that I went back to it. I hope that all the years I’ve been taking it, even at its lowest dose, that it has been good for my blood vessels. The older we get, the more good news that a medication can deliver, the better, in my book.