5 mph

For a while this summer. I rode my bike so much that I dropped a bit of weight and my blood pressure went really down. Boy I felt great.
So my doctor lowered my blood pressure medication dosage. Maybe it was my imagination, I was a lot more energetic and napping less.

Well its winter now, the weight came back . I still ride my bike daily , as long and as hard as I did in the summer. but my blood pressure
rose again, and I'm back on my normal dosage and after dinner I can't do much except watch TV with the family..
Some people say this "_______tril" or ARB's cause fatigue.
Is this my imagination?
Or is it just the Winter Blahs.
I still move my bike at a good clip and I train very hard...

canklecat

Yup, BP meds do that to me too. I take them only occasionally for migraines and they always knock me out for a day or two -- I feel sluggish. Supposedly we get accustomed to them with regular use but my blood pressure is okay so I don't take BP meds every day. Just a quirk of some migraines that they respond to certain BP meds.

bruce19

Several years ago my Doc put me on Coreg which is a beta blocker. It was horrible. I couldn't spin the pedals at all. I'd wake up at 6 AM and have to go to sleep at noon. I started getting depressed and I NEVER get depressed. As I discovered, a beta blocker is like a governor on your heart. It just will not allow your heart to beat past a certain point. A friend who is a Naturopathic Physician suggested I try 100% beet juice. I did and it helped a lot. I have also noticed that severely limiting coffee helps. FWIW there is a Yoga / Navy Seal breathing exercise that will lower BP.

Ed Wiser

Need to get a bike trainer and get off the couch and back on the bike. Ride everyday I did that an have lost weight and feel better. Being able to ride indoors gives you no excuse. I get up every morning at 6:15 am and get on my bike. I use three apps Sufferfest for a good workout, Rouvy for outdoor riding and Zwift fir meetups with bike club members.

George

I think the beta blockers could be causing that. They have different ones and I had to get off the one I was on. I’m on just lisinopril now and I can’t remember the beta blocker I was on , but I told the doctor you got to come up with something different and he did. Like I said I’m only on the lisinopril now and feel much better. Good luck.

big john

"I still ride my bike daily , as long and as hard as I did in the summer."

blacknbluebikes 

I'm on a fairly low dose of carvedilol (Coreg). It definitely can make me feel tired, and I had to make adjustments on dosage w/ Doc to get to a good level. Also ask your Doc about time-of-day for dosing. While it does indeed 'put a governor' on the HR, my monitoring says I'm probably maxing around 160 instead of a 'predicted' 170-175. Or maybe I just don't try hard enough (or care). I don't think it's a factor in my recreational road riding. Get thee on a trainer, post haste. Or pull those oversized jeans back out of the bottom drawer. [insert Rule#5 here]

5 mph

Thanks for the feedback. I really thought it was my imagination.
I'm wondering if there are ways to cut back on the lethargy affect--What if I shortened my long daily bike ride or skip it or cut back?But I doubt I could do that, Rain or shine or cold or wind that ride everyday is so much fun and the best part of my day...
Two weeks ago at this very time, when I was on a really low dose, I was down in my cold garage working on--what else--my bike.
Tonight I feel clumsy, chilly, sleepy and I'm going to try to stay awake and watch TV with the family and yeah they do make you feel less than positive , depressed is the right word..
Its funny, because you know its your medication so you try to use mental gymnastics to ignore it but you can't

bruce19

Not all BP meds are Beta Blockers. This might have information that is useful to you.

https://www.heart.org/en/health-topi...re-medications

bruce19

OP....what was your BP pre-medication? Do you have a BP monitor at home? I use an OMRON and it is pretty accurate. I also discovered some breathing techniques used by the Navy Seals that come from Yoga. There is also a guy named Wim Hoff (The Iceman) who advocates a breathing technique for wellness generally. I have used several of these techniques and have seen improvement with each of them. For example, yesterday I took my BP at 134/84 and after a breathing technique it was 124/80. Today it was 145/91 and 135/85. My BP at home has been as high as 150/100. I'd be curious to know if breathing techniques are helpful.

FWIW...I'm not suggesting that you should abandon MD's recommendations but my MD has said I should sit in a quiet room for 10 minutes, relax and then take my
BP.

5 mph

thanks! Btw woke up at 6 am and my BP was 140 /89
at 10 am 140/89
then I rode my bike 1 hour, 17 mph. Blood pressure was 150 98 after I got off the bike
but ten minutes later after my shower it was130 72. Happens everytime after a bike ride. Now do you know why I am addicted?

Steelman54 

My couple of cents worth here for whatever it is worth as I am not a doctor is to keep riding, even the trainer in the basement/garage helps the BP. Mine BP has gone way down since I can ride more consistently. I admit getting out of where I used to work and doing p/t consulting has helped as the pressure to always turn work over the minute it arrives has gone away. I am on a simple low dose of amlodipine beseylyte (5 mg), but may go off it as my BP is low enough. In my opionion, watch these docs they love to overprescribe medication as I had a similar problem and bad side effects from statins before I told them to screw off on statins. Good luck.

sch

Part of the problem is the heart association keeps revising down the level of 'acceptable' BP. Where for non geriatrics below 140 was
felt to be great, then it was below 130 a few years ago and now it is below 120 as defined as normotensive. Diastolic BP below
80 ditto where below 90 was ok a few yrs ago. All this relates to some large population studies that seem to correlate elevated BP
(above 120/80 for either #) with increased heart/brain risk ie heart attack/stroke/dementia. This is no longer age adjusted, where
in the past someone in their 80s or above would be felt to be safer brain wise if systolic was upto 160 because the stiff arteries
would not modulate the pulsatile flow as much. No longer. So that is the info side pushing doctors to pay more attention
but there is also the bureaucrats monitoring patient health by blood sugar levels, weight, smoking and BP control and penalizing
MDs for failure to improve their patient health in these and other parameters. With the advent of electronic records this is very
easy to do.

deacon mark

I am not a dr but and expert on HBP had it since I was 14 years old. Been a marathoner and cyclist for 42 years. Has not keep me off BP medications and in fact had to increase mine dosage early in 2020. I take Lostartan 100 mils and 7.5 of HCZ a diuretic. This is not a beta blocker so has not directly effected my riding. If I don't keep up the riding the BP will rise. Mine will run perfect after my morning ride of usually 50 miles. Then will even get really low like 110-60. Then starts creeping back up and of course I have huge white coat syndrome. I go to office it gets way up come home and it is generally fine. I tell this to doctors who don't know me and they just shake their heads because they even realize it is wild to figure BP.

Bottom line exercise helps but it is not a complete cure.

5 mph

I think body Weight actually is not an indicator.
I am no doctor.
However I have seen really large guys who dont exercise packing some body fat at 120 / 70 and some lean small guys at 150/ 100.
I think personality is a better indicator. Chubby guys who talk slow, move calmly and hardly sweat seem to have low blood pressure and really intense excitable guys are usually high.

Hermes

Moved to Pills and Ills.

bruce19

FWIW Pills and Ills is not a forum I would go to. And, that's too bad because I would have missed this and I have something to contribute. Why not just leave it where it was? It's not like it was doing harm.

StanSeven

At one point a large share of threads in Fifty Plus (50+) were medically related. Sometimes medical discussions outnumbered cycling. Members complained about the number of off topic posts. So the P&I subforum under Fifty Plus as created. If you’re interested in these type threads, check it out more regularly

Siu Blue Wind

I'd like to ad that the complaints were that people who really wanted to learn about 50+ cycling had to fish through all the medical issues, some not even related to cycling. It was frustrating people. We observed it for a few months and the moderation team agreed that it became mostly about peoples ills. Instead of deleting all of them so that the 50+ cycling threads can be the majority in the 50+ cycling forum, we decided to make a section just for ills and pills.

bruce19

Those must be the people who grew up coloring within the lines. Picasso would be amused.

Siu Blue Wind

OR... If that's the case, why should we even have subforums? Why not just let it be one big cluster?

5 mph

You have a valid point..the reason I respectfully disagree, and I have been wrong many times, is that for many fifty and over riders , medical issues and living, overcoming or even making them go away are a significant part of the bike riding experience. Riding in Cold Weather, Buying Expensive Bikes and Parts, Road Safety , Best Handlebar grips and High blood pressure and bad knees are all part of the same experience..we share

jppe

Just as feedback, I’m fine with these topics being in the Pills and ills subforum. I pop in from time to time, particularly if the post title that’s visible on the 50+ main page looks interesting. Or if I feel like there’s a reason to post medically related items. I’m guessing that a lot of the 50+ participants may not even realize there’s actually a subforum for medically related topics so they don’t know to visit. Similar situation with the 65-85 subforum where some of us have earned the right to participate!!! Thanks for all you folks are doing!!! Now just bring back the Diego’s (humor that many just might not understand!)!!!

Steelman54 

Again, just my thoughts here, but I think its big pharma that keeps pushing the lower numbers. I told my doctor i would live to the numbers before the last revision or so. He said fine. In our system, it pays off for the corporation running the medical practice to have to take pills and make more visits. That is why the numbers are pushed to be lower.

unterhausen

I don't think it's big pharma. I wish I had paid attention when my numbers were lower. They just kept slowly climbing and it obviously wasn't good. Yeah, my numbers would go down if i weighed 20 pounds less, but I don't. I know they sell a lot, but this stuff is dirt cheap, they aren't doing that well with it. Too much competition.

I am on a fairly high dose of lisinopril with a diuretic. Just the lisinopril by itself wasn't doing that much. I swore I would never take a diuretic because it seems stupid, but I haven't had any bad side effects and it works. Can't take beta blockers because of asthma, but I wouldn't have anyway.