BF with very high BP taking meds and St. John's wort???

[LydiaRobinvale]

Hi my boyfriend is 53 and has a thickened left ventricle which causes very high BP. He is taking metaprolol 50mg twice a day now and lisinopril / hydrochlorothiazide 20mg/25mg twice daily also. In addition he has been very depressed and has started taking SIX 300mg pills of St. John's wort daily. He just measured his BP because he didn't feel good and it was 170/95 and it's been higher than that. He will not listen to me or go back to his doctor, I feel like the St. John's wort is making it worse. I don't know what to do! Please someone help me?

[Saylor23]

I also have lvh, I'm 24 yrs old this my systolic bp is always high in truly to the lvh. What degree is his lvh? It's probably something he's had for awhile. The best thing he can do is follow his docs orders and keep regular appointments it's nothing to mess around with especially with high bp your a 4 folds risk of heart attack and stroke. Hope he realizes he needs to go. Lvh It's a manageable finding you just have to control Bo and lead a healthy lifestyle. I've read into a lot about lvh since I have it moderatly

[LydiaRobinvale]

I don't know what degree exactly but I do know it's severe. I think he mentioned it was 4 times the thickness it should be and they aren't sure if it's from stress (he used to essentially be a cop in nyc) or weight lifting because he used to body build. There's things they can do for either one but they won't know why one caused it until he's dead basically. So that's no help.. He tries to live healthy but he has diabetes too not diagnosed just yet but the doctors keep giving him the run around about it. I know he's diabetic.. He often goes long periods without eating anything because he isn't hungry and part of that is depression. He's been depressed because he has painful fallen arches, and a lot of eye problems that are unrelated to anything else. So all the health issues and boredom gets him down, which is what drives him to take that stupid St. John's wort. He plays with fire sometimes taking ibuprofen and Aleve I think at the same time because his dentist once told him it was equivalent to morphine. He doesn't seem to care about drug interactions. He thinks he's invincible I guess.. And I'm just afraid one of these days something will happen and I won't be able to help. Oh and he also has a mass in is lung they didn't take a biopsy of and just told him it was fine but he has a persistent cough.. It's very troubling

[killer777]

Lydia believe it or not he has a point... I'm not saying don't go back to the doctor but it can be confusing. I had to go back over and over because they keep giving me meds that caused an allergic reaction . Guess what it makes your blood pressure go up higher! It just going to keep going back to you get something that works. I am on A clonidine patch and take a hundre and take a hundred milligrams of metatoprol  Anna point one clonidine to go with my patch. Its working for now but I sometimes get spikes. He might want to look into clonidine patch you just stick it on your arm and it works for 7 days with other medication of course but I would back off some of the other meds after the patch to see if they were really needed or if they were causing the problem. Good luck

[tacolino]

Hi there. Firstly I am not a doctor, you need medical advice, however I will try help a little. its possible that you have your first comment in reverse. I think the high Bp causes the LVH. Well the start is to look at the current meds, A water tablet and Ace inhibitor combination twice a day. Also a beta blocker too. Sometimes it takes a fair amount of trial and error in the BP meds to find the correct dose and combination. But this is vitally important, so he has to go back to the doctor and work at it till the BP is under control. How can he have Diabetes undiagnosed? ....a bit confusing. Was he tested when he had his coronary assessment? Well I wonder exactly what Heart tests he has had? Ecg & Echo I guess? What blood work was done? (Diabetic test is one usually part of routine work) Has he insisted that any possible secondary causes are outruled? Did he have an Angiogram test or a 24 hour AMBP test. Don't think im rude but he is your BF. He owes it to you to sort out his health for your future? Time to make a list of his problems with him and go back to the doctor, work together and get that BP down under 130. Act now,