Coming off blood pressure med

[WeAllHaveWings]

I am on 2.5mg Ramipril (not a huge dose I know), but would love to come off it as I think it is partly responsible for my now very fine hair. I have been on it since late 2018 - so 6 years.

I have been taking Mounjaro (weight loss medication) for 20 weeks now and my blood pressure is coming down. I can't remember what it was in the Drs last time it was checked, but I bought an OMRON BP monitor in August.

Checking over a week (30 minutes after rising in morning before med/drinks/food and in evening at least 2 hours after food) the averages are -

August - 109/78 (weight 19st 4lbs)
September - 107/76 (18st 8lbs)
October - 101/74 (17st 9lbs)

I have started a November (weight 17st 3lbs) week of readings today and this mornings reading was 96/72 (after a bit of lazy lie in as on annual leave from work).

A couple of questions, I am taking readings at the right times? Has anyone had their Dr asking them to take readings at home, how many times a day did you take/when?

I have my BP/annual health review with the surgery nurse next week. Do you think they will take me off Ramipril with those readings?

These are all questions you need to discuss with the nurse or doctor.

Another thing that does affect blood pressure is caffeine so you could look at switching to decaffeinated drinks instead.

My DH is on 2.5mg ramipril and his BP is roughly 117/75. At his check up last month, he was told the ramipril is doing its job by keeping BP low and they didn’t want him to change his dose. He isn’t overweight at all. I think it’s worth taking am and pm readings until you see GP to show as in my experience they don’t like changing medication,

@RampantIvy I am at the nurse next week where I will have the conversation, I am not doing anything without speaking to them first, just trying to be prepared for the discussion with any questions I need to ask and having appropriate BP readings.

I don't drink tea or coffee. I used to have 3-5 cans of Pepsi Max a day, but have also been off that for the last 20 weeks.

My surgery asks me to take my own readings every year. Three readings one after the other in the morning, then 3 readings in the evening for 7 days. They ask for the average morning and evening readings.

Thanks @stealthsquirrelnutkin my BP monitor takes 3 readings with a 30 sec delay between them and then averages. Would that be what they are looking for or 2 x the triple reading?

There are so many bp medications that they should easily be able to change them for you if you need to. They should be able to find one that works well but gives you no or less side effects