Is it ok to go on and off blood pressure medication?

My mother has high blood pressure, but does not like taking pills, so she is only taking her blood pressure pills when she feels she needs them and not every day. Is it harmfull to do this?

This is not a good idea. can be very dangerous. if your mom is having probs with the pills, she needs to talk to her doctor, he can perscribe differant ones.
High blood pressure is nothing to mess around with. Thats why it's called the silent killer.

13 comments ↓

#1 joan. on 06.05.09 at 12:19 pm

you should ask your mother's doctor about this. we're not her doctor so we dont know what's right or wrong for her.
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#2 Are we using our brains today on 06.05.09 at 12:55 pm

yes it can cause severe problems tell her to talk to doc
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#3 lilcutie224u on 06.05.09 at 1:12 pm

I'm pretty sure that's not a good idea, blood pressure is nothing to mess around with
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#4 jamie s on 06.05.09 at 2:01 pm

YES!! She needs to take her BP pills as directed for the rest of her life, EVEN when she is feeling better. She is putting herself at great risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke!!!!
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I am a nurse.

#5 Donna L on 06.05.09 at 2:39 pm

Tell her she has to take them everyday just like her doctor told her to not just when she feels like it. You can do more damage by stopping and starting them again. She could end up in the hospital or even worse, death.
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Pharmacy Technician

#6 sarcastro1976 on 06.05.09 at 2:58 pm

YES! Yes, because BP has to be pretty high before you feel it, and hypertension (even if you don't notice it) can do its dirty work silently: destroy the kidneys and cause heart attacks and strokes, among other things.

Heart attacks can kill you or make you permanently weaker; strokes can kill you or make you unable to move part of your body and/or not think the way you used to, and ruined kidneys means you'll have to spend 3 days a week, every week, in dialysis in order to survive. If you don't know what dialysis is, look it up–it's not pleasant.

AND, if she's a diabetic and thinks that diet/blood sugar really don't matter, those matter too–they make all the problems I outlined above worse.
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I work with cardiac patients.

#7 idog on 06.05.09 at 3:17 pm

Your mother needs to know that this is simply not acceptable. Going on and off blood pressure medication is VERY dangerous. First of all, it defeats the purpose of taking the medicine in the first place since you never end up with enough of the medicine in your system at one time to help lower blood pressure. In addition, if you happens to take it regularly for awhile and then stop taking it, your blood pressure can suddenly skyrocket which can lead to a heart attack and obviously, death. So…tell her to deal with her "pill issues" or talk to her doctor about it, but what she's doing now is definitely NOT OK!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I am currently taking medicine for high blood pressure.

#8 kismitt21 on 06.05.09 at 3:57 pm

This is not a good idea. can be very dangerous. if your mom is having probs with the pills, she needs to talk to her doctor, he can perscribe differant ones.
High blood pressure is nothing to mess around with. Thats why it's called the silent killer.
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#9 Miss Wong on 06.05.09 at 4:28 pm

You can't feel it when your blood pressure is high so you can't say I feel fine so I'm not taking them. It's critical to take them and you must take them every single day. You need to try and get the point across to her that you're worried about her and you want her to take them. It's only a little pill so what if you have her take them when she eats a meal with you so you can see her take them. Just bring them to the table and put them down or put a pill on her plate and don't say any more. It might not hurt to call her doctor and tell him that you're worried and see if they would call her. She might understand that you're concerned enough to call him.
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#10 imtiaz c on 06.05.09 at 5:01 pm

Onec a person starts bp medicine, should continue rest of life eitrher have the presuure or not. But may change the type of Medicine. Better not off on. Ok ?
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#11 versantly on 06.05.09 at 5:32 pm

i hope that your mother is not a doctor. she is not taking very good care of herself. the doctor prescribes blood pressure medication to be taken daily. there is no gray area.
she could kill herself by taking it when she feels like it.
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#12 lady26 on 06.05.09 at 5:49 pm

this is a questoin for ur doctor.
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#13 starrwoode on 06.05.09 at 6:08 pm

take her pills every single day, she doesnt know what she does and doesnt need, she will kill herself doing this.
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