Side effects of blood pressure meds

My sister, who is 85, complained of being tired. Then she got a painful case of gout in her foot. She stopped taking her blood pressure medication, a diuretic called hydrochlorothiazide. Her tiredness went away as did her gout. Then she got a kidney stone, which, with the help of drugs, she passed. Of course, I started researching the side effects of blood pressure medicines. Here’s what I found:

• Tiredness: Blood pressure medicines lower the pressure inside blood vessels, so the heart doesn’t have to work as hard to pump blood throughout the body. The meds cause fatigue because they slow down the pumping action of the heart and depress the entire central nervous system. Because diuretic BP meds make you pee a lot, you deplete important electrolytes, which causes fatigue. 
• Gout: Your body produces uric acid when it breaks down purines — substances that are found naturally in your body. Normally, uric acid dissolves in your blood and passes through your kidneys into your urine. If your kidneys excrete too little uric acid, the acid can build up, and form sharp, needle-like urate crystals in a joint or surrounding tissue. The result is pain, inflammation and swelling. Because the diuretic type of BP meds increase urination, the amount of fluid in your body is reduced and the remaining fluid is more concentrated, which increases the risk of developing the crystals that cause gout. (My sister’s doc discounted the gout idea and said it must have been an insect bite. Give me a break.)
• Kidney stones: As I mentioned above, the diuretic type of BP meds increase urination. Because of the increased loss of water, the calcium in urine becomes more concentrated, which can lead to the formation of calcium stones. My sister’s kidney stones may not have been caused by her meds, but for some people BP meds are definitely implicated in the formation of stones.

Incidentally, another important side effect of blood pressure meds is dizziness or light-headedness, which I’ve mentioned in an earlier post. My sister didn’t get dizzy. But dizziness from these drugs is a major cause of falls in old people.

In the interest of science, I took my blood pressure. Initially, when I was in a bit of a huff about using the device, my BP was 150 over 80-something. I then sat and did deep breathing from my diaphragm, as taught in yoga. My BP dropped to 124. A do-it-yourself remedy.

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