How does medications help with high blood pressure?

70 y/o with 5 blood pressure medications?

• My Grandmother was diagnosed with high blood pressure last year, her BP has gone up as high as 260/180 and she's been hospitalized twice because of it, a few weeks ago she had a light stroke and the doctors have really been scrambling with her medications, they put her on a few and then it has severe side effects, then they change it, side effects again and terrible swelling in her hands and feet.....the doctors are realy screwing her up bad trying to get it to go down but her blood pressure just refuses to go down, its been holding stable at about 160/80 for the past week but shes tired all the time, dizzy and irritable. She thinks she might be taking too many medications shes currently on (Hydrolozine 100 mg 3x day, Carvedilol, Tekturna and Almodipine and losartan) is she taking too many meds? is there any meds that she should reccommend to her doctor? any help would be apreciated thank you

• Answer:

  I know that it may seems like Grandma is taking a lot of meds. But my family experience with high blood pressure is very similar. My husband and my mother in law both were placed on a number of BP meds before their BP was kept at an acceptable rate. And my husband is much younger than your grandmother. She has to be patient and give her doctor's time to find the magic combination that works for her. I wouldn't advise for her to to make suggestions to her doctor's about what to give her. Unless she herself is a cardiologist. She or her family should ask why they are using so many different meds. The specifics of why it is so difficult to find the meds she needs to control her BP. She and her family should understand the status of her condition and be kept on the doctor's treatment plans. I'd also advise that someone from the family go with her to all doctor appointments so that if she misses something a family member is there to catch the slack. At the levels of her blood pressure readings it's not surprising that she's had a even a small stroke. At the higher levels she's extremely lucky she didn't have a massive stroke or heart attack. Also it's never a bad idea to get a second opinion if things seem to remain static over a long period of time with no improvement. Ask around to friends and families or people your family might meet who are being treated by a cardiologist for ideas of the best doctor for her. (We did this when not happy with the cardiologist we were referred too. We found an extremely good one just by talking to other people.)