How long should I be taking Losartan potassium “Lifezar”?
I’m a 37yrs old OFW, slightly overweight & once had a terrible headache, was vomiting & my BP went up to 190/140. I was eventually confined in the hospital for 4 days. Eversince that day, I am religiously checking BP everyday for the past 6wks & it ranges from 112-127 over 72-80. How long should I be taking 50mg Lifezar? Would it be reduced in dosage and eventually stop in taking it in the future? I have lost about 10lbs and on fish and vegetable diet and refrained on drinking alcohol already. I was thinking since I’m only on my late 30s and active on my lifestyle, I won’t be needing a maintenace meds this soon.
Filed under: Potassium and Being Sick
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Losartan can be taken indefinitely for hypertension. your weight loss and diet improvements may have resolved your hypertension for now. congratulations on your efforts.
negotiate with your GP abut reducing the dosage with the goal of weaning off it. continue to monitor your bp during this process.
when you first wake up or just before you go to sleep is the best time to check your bp as it will give your resting and relaxed bp which is exactly what is being targeted. the numbers you have given indicate that the combination of meds and lifestyle changes are working very well.
your efforts however may not counteract the need for ‘maintenance meds’ as hypertension has genetic and idiopathic risk factors
This is a prescription medication and you should keep taking it as long as your doctor tells you to. Since Losartan K does not cure high blood pressure, but only keeps it under control, I imagine that if weight loss and dietary changes reduce your BP to an acceptable range, your doctor will say it’s OK to get off the drug. To establish that your BP has actually dropped, you would have to go off the meds for some time. For more info, see:
http://www.drugs.com/pdr/losartan-potassium.html
http://www.rxlist.com/cozaar-drug.htm
Generally it is usual to get a diuretic drug first, and then have other drugs added on if needed.
Lifezar is an Angiotensin II receptor blocker, there is a claim that it has some diuretic effects by itself, I really don’t know much about that, so I need to read more on it.
In general, with just about any drug that suppresses a body system, if you suddenly stop taking it a rebound effect occurs. For this reason any attempt to stop taking the medication should be done slowly.
Asprin and other NSAID drugs like naproxin or ibuprofen can decrease the effectiveness of Lifezar and increase the risk of your potassium levels getting too high. Lifezar probably should not be taken with a potassium sparing diuretic.
Your high blood pressure therapy has to be tailored to your specific situation, but in general diuretics combined with a beta blocker are cheap and have the best track record for the overall population.
You might get a cheap used Human Anatomy and Physiology text by Elaine Maried from Amazon.com to help in reading comprehension of these issues.