Dry cough symptoms and conditions

i took lisinopril for 5 months for moderate high bp. stopped taking it 3 weeks ago because of the incredibly intrusive dry cough which often led to vomiting, and the feeling of utter exhaustion and muscle aches. some days i could only take one step at a time. i made stupid mistakes at work and found difficulty in multi-tasking, eventually questioning my ability to continue working. but even after 3 weeks i still cough with distressing frequency, peeing my pants and throwing up--and i'm as stiff, sore and tired as ever. after talking to friends who had experience with lisinopril, i now fear it may take many months to return to normal. having no insurance, it's not always easy to just run to the doc for this and that. i'm going it alone now. i am a 62 year old woman.

dry cough .heart pounding, /skipping beat ,. weepy ,.also tiredness when walking the same distance i usually wal, before taking this medication..

I am 51 year old woman and have been on Lisinopril 5mg and Bendroflumethiazide 2.5mg for many years now, about 8 (not sure). I got the dry cough to start with and then it vanished, to be replaced with a productive cough. I get, at any time, but thankfully not all the time, a constant need t clear my throat and a wheezing in my breath. I am producing copious amounts of mucus and this is what sets it off. It most often happens after eating or after I have been sedentary for a long time so I get it a lot when in bed. I cough until it all clears away but sometimes I am sick, or I cough myself dizzy and come over all peculiar. It is not a listed side effect but I never had this before. My hair has suddenly thinned, hairdresser told me he has notice a big change in my hair (am menopausal but not through it yet, I suppose my age and meo could be cause of thinning hair). I suffer from terrible stiffness in my feet. Sometimes I can hardly walk as my legs and feet as so fatigued. I will limp upstairs one at a time. Other days I can s[rint up! No regular pattern but I have started using a walking stick often as one ankle is very weak and can give way. Could it be the Lisinopril? I had three day bout of my taste buds going haywire about four years ago but it righted itself. Now I have it again, only not quite so bad. I can taste tea and coffee and savory foodstuff mostly as normal but sweet things either are tasteless or bitter. I don't know if I should go doctors or not. Does anyone else get this constant hacking cough due to excess mucus suddenly being produced. Tenalady are making too much money out of me due to this, lol!

My whole life 120/70. Two months ago 160/103 wtf. I am on my second month of lisinopril. I am pretty sure it has caused me to be absent minded and grouchy. I was never these before. Worse yet for me is that I am a life long runner. I live to exercise so that I can enjoy the more fun things in life. beer wine and good food. ( I am 47 years old) I ran my first marathon 26.2 miles in January. I now have trouble running three miles with out getting fatigued, dizzy and winded. This sucks!!! any advice would be appreciated.

I am a 44 year old male, been on Lisinopril for almost 2 years. My insurance stopped paying for whatever I was on prior, and gave me this. I was told only side effect may be a dry cough. OK, never got the dry cough. Great I thought ! Last year, I developed a bilateral rash on both arms, and both sides of my waist. I dealt with it.. went away for a while, and now back with a vengeance... arms, elbows, buttocks, both sides, and chins... the scratching is unbearable.... Im guessing based on what Im reading on this site it could be the lisinopril ? Please comment back if you've had similar.....

I have been taking 20 mg. for two weeks and I have developed a dry cough, pain in the middle of my shoulder blades and my left arm. I tried to cut my grass and felt like I was going to die. I am 48 year old male with BP of 140/90. Lisinopril has lowered my BP as low as 90/60 so I cut the dosage in half. Now I feel like my throat has been ripped out and I'm hurting all over. I will never take Lisinopril again. I was on Benicar, but it was expensive and didn't really work. I am going to start exercising more and try the health food stores.

This drug should be taken off the market. My Dr. warned me of a cough when he gave it to me but did not tell me that you would literally drown in secretions from the drainage in your throat. I have been on it 2 weeks and my quality of life has diminished considerably. During the day its as if a little man with a squirt bottle of acid is spraying my throat. At night the same thing but lying down produces uncontrollable drainage. I have to keep a spit cup by my bed and hardly get any sleep. Have tried allergy medications to no avail. I threw it in the garbage today. I would rather monitor my BP 30 times a day than live thru this.

My question is if you have been on this drug and your Dr. took you off, what did he use in its place? Would Beta Blockers be better? Who has experienced this and is now free of it? What is the alternative drug? I called my Dr.'s office today and they have Benicar waiting for me in the AM...anyone know about that one? I am desperate!

Hello everyone. I too am experiencing the same problems described here from Lisinopril. On January 1st of this year, ( 2009 ) I was taken to the hospital emergency room and admitted into the hospital under the assumption that I was having congestive heart failure. After a barrage of tests it was determined that I have diabetes and I was already taking hydrochlorothiazide ( 50 mgs ) for water retention. I was prescribed Lisinopril ( 10 mgs ) and told to cut my hydrochlorothiazide in half. Everything was fine for about a month and then it started...
I had noticed on the bottle of Lisinopril that the one side effect in some patients was a dry cough but disregarded it since it didn't seem to be affecting me. After being on Lisinopril for a month, I began having this awful dusty feeling in my throat. It actually feels like someone has a bellows filled with dust which they've placed in my mouth and released a spray of dust which caused me to have this feeling of needing to cough almost to the point of choking. I don't have this cough all day long. It only happens intermittently throughout the day. Sometimes when I am standing or sitting but mostly when I am laying down in bed. I've also noticed that it seems to have somewhat of a consistent schedule. Perhaps this is due to the fact that I would take the pill every morning around the same time. However, I've stopped taking it about a week and a half ago and still seem to have somewhat of a pattern of when the coughs occur. Strange.
Another thing I noticed is that I've seemed to have an excessive amount of saliva which would also cause me to choke at times. Have any of you experienced excessive saliva with this medication?
I've been trying to lose weight without success and I'm wondering if Lisinopril has something to do with that as well. After reading all of these comments on this forum, I am wondering if doctors as well as The American Medical Association should take a closer look as to whether the side effects of this medication out weigh the benefits and/or what this medicine is supposed to be helping the patient with. So far I see no positive effects from this medication.

I started this drug 2 weeks ago for borderline HBP. My dosage is the 10Lisinopril/HCT. 3 days into starting it I started having a bad dry cough, worse at night. This has continued and kept me up for and hour or more, and also get a sore throat from all the coughing. When walking up the slight incline in my backyard, I'm getting short of breath. About 4 to 5 hours into the day after I take this-my brain or thoughts begin to feel cloudy or confusing and I feel very dragged out and no motivation to do anything even though I have tons of stuff to get done. On a couple of my days off--I laid down and went out like a light for an hour. Upon getting out of bed one morning after a week on this I was so dizzy I had to hang onto the wall! The mind cloudiness seems to lessen in the evening. I am a very active 56 yr. old female. Not overweight-live out in the country and was feeling pretty darn healthy before taking this med. Talked to the nurse at the clinic and she said to give it a little while longer for my system to get use to it. Well-after reading posts here I think NO WAY. I cut the pill in half today as I read that it is dangerous to "cold turkey" blood pressure pills...and I have to say I feel MUCH better today and motivated and not dragged out so much. I'm going to see if there is something else that can be prescribed. My BP is down to normal-but that's about the only thing good I can say about this drug so far.

Wow, is all I can say. I just found this website this past Thursday morning before going to my Doctor. I am off it now and back on Diovan thanks to this forum. Here's my story... I switched from taking Diovan to Lisinopril-hctz about 3 months ago because it was way cheaper. I started getting a mild runny nose, and cough that didn't go a way.It was getting harder to sleep as the days went by. I tried sinus, allergy, cold, and cough medicine with nothing helping. I went to a different doctor at a local after hours clinic and they gave me a steroid shot for allergies. I have never had allergies all my life. I am 36 yrs old and work outside for a living. I knew something was wrong and started to get a little worried. I went back to see my main Doctor on May 5th and he switched me from Lisinopril-Hctz to 30mg of Lisinopril because I thought I was going to the bathroom more often. I questioned the side effects again and was told you just get a dry cough and what I had is allergies and gave me a prescription for Astelin. Not long after, my hell began. I started having the EXTREME coughing, gagging until you vomit, stuffy runny nose, and I was starting to get a little anxiety. Not to mentioned scared at this point. I could not sleep at night due to the coughing fits. I would sleep best after I had some drinks at night, so that became my sleep aid. I got a respiratory infection late May and took a Z-pack and Lohist 12d. I got a little better. This past Sat I woke up with a sore throat and something like a cold. Sunday morning I woke up with the sore throat that was worse and a panic attack! I was freaking out, pacing around wanting to go to the ER. It took 3 hrs to calm down and fell asleep. Sunday night anxiety kicked in again at bed time and I didn't know why. I just knew something was very wrong with me and mentally I was losing it. I took some melatonin and still couldn't sleep because of anxiety and coughing. Monday I was afraid of what was going on mentally and started to question if I was safe to be by myself if a bad panic attack occurs. I scheduled an appointment to see my doctor on Thursday. Hoping I could make it till then. Monday night I took a melatonin trying to stay calm and keep anxiety down. Could not sleep, bad coughing and gagging, but started to wind down about 1:30 am when it started. I was laying down making my ears pop/click and for some reason I could not make my right ear pop before my left ear. All the sudden anxiety kicked in full force. It took a long time to calm down that night. I finally did get my right ear popping before the left one. Its sounds funny but it wasn't at that time. It was official, I have lost my mind. I did not sleep at all wed night before my appointment. I did find this website that morning before going and felt better after reading other posts. After talking to him I switched back to Diovan. He still was leaning towards allergies though. He told me to take benadryl at night and claritin during the day and my coughing may take about 4 weeks to see improvements. I had my hopes ups on Thursday, but after reading a lot of posts here I am still discouraged about the outcome. For those of you that had anxiety attacks at night, how long before those stopped? Also how long before the coughing and gagging starts to slow down or end? Is there anybody that stopped taking Lisinopril, but symptoms have not improved? I am glad I found this forum and happy to be back on Diovan. Right now with the way I feel with the sore throat, coughing, gagging, vomiting, sinus pressure, anxiety, I am still unsure on the outcome and what may come next....

within 4 days a dry cough started at night and day, now I have a thick clear phlegm in my throat that chokes me if I do not clear it .I spend quite a bit of time spitting up to clear my throat.I was fine before, I have been trying allergy medicines and nasal sprays nothing works.I am glad I read this site as I did try to stay off it for 5 days and the same symptoms persisted,but now I know the side effects can last for weeks so I will be contacting my Doctor to change it

I am a 62 year old female and started taking Prinil, which contains Lisinopril, 3 months ago. On the second day the dry cough started and also my vocal cords felt paralyzed. After 12 days I was told to stop taking the medication. I still have a very hoarse voice and problems with my speech. Have been to two throat specialists and there is nothing wrong with my throat. Has anyone had such symptoms. If so please reply.

I am a 38 year old female on Lisinopril for approx. 2 months on and off. I am in excellent physical shape and ideal weight with a family history of hbp. I immediately noticed negative side effects from this drug. Extreme fatigue and confusion the first day I took this pill. The first month it was in combination with water pill and that was a disaster. I could not stop craving salt. I stopped taking this on my own and went back to the Dr. She then prescribed the Lisinopril w/o the water pill and the salt cravings were not as severe but I was constantly hungry! Yesterday I decided to not take the pill and see how I felt and of course I was NOT tired or having any unusual hunger issues. There was an immediate difference! I also have the dry cough which until now I thought was something I had p/u from one of my children and could not shake. This drug is ridiculous. I have taken meds for bp on and off through 2 pregnancies over a 10 yr. period and the pills are worse than being pregnant as far as exhaustion and cravings!!!! This is very scary and I know hbp is deadly, but there are other meds which do not come with all the negative side effects. I will keep experimenting until I find one that works for me. This pill is headed for the trash!!

I took my dose on a full stomach just before bed and am not having the side effects , the dry cough and a little night restlessness was it.Again thanks to all for sharing. It is 9am .

Hi,I am a 43 year old female who has high blood pressure. I have been taking 10 mg of lisinopil for about 8 weeks. I started getting the dry cough and always felt like clearing my throat. I went to the ENT and was told that I had acid reflux. I am up most of the night coughing and choking. I am wondering after reading the complaints that this med might be causing it. I am now taking Nexium for the acid reflux but the dry cough is still happening. My high blood pressure was only 145/90 so I am thinking of going off the meds and try to get the BP down on my own.

Ive been taking lisinopril 5mg for over five yrs or more did not have side effects ive read about on here until feeling unwell over the past 12months maybe longer, joint pain, 6 months ago i could hardly walk, pain in left knee and pain in right foot, weight gain, pounding chest, dry cough, thank god for finding this site, soon as i did i stopped taking it that was about 5 weeks ago, i feel a lot better, even though my bp might be up i don't care id rather live with it than take this crap. and i feel that its just getting out of my system so you maybe talking a couple of months depending what strength you are on, to getting out of your system, hope my post will be of help.
S. in UK

55 yr old female, taking this medication for couple of months...these
are my side effects...tired all the time,severe anxiety, can't sleep, my
legs ache and I am in pain, dry cough, headache and depression.

I, too, am trying to get off of Lisinopril. I am 49, and 10 lbs over my ideal weight. Went on the drug in December 2008, 2.5 mg a day. Since then, I have been depressed, tired, had a dry cough, sometimes a pounding heart and most recently, I am now losing my hair! And, yes, my bp is normal while on the Lisinopril. I have to say, that while I knew it was making me feel lousy, the hair loss was the last straw of side effects. I went on it at a time of high stress in my life and for now, life is calmer and my bp ranges between 135/80 and 145/90 when I am off it. Thinking of some natural, healthy approaches to lower my bp. Perhaps lose that 10 pounds and get more exercise. It is the worry of a high bp that makes the lisinopril hard to give up. The side effects though tell me it is bad for my body. I appreciate this website and reading about the experiences others are having while on this drug. I am hoping my hair will come back in if I stay off of it. Has anyone else had their hair grow back?

I have been taking this medicine for the last 2 months 5mgs a day. About a month ago I started having this horrible dry cough. I am very healthy and active and I do not get sick very often but, this cough will not go away. I have tried over the counter drugs but, nothing works. After reading your comments, I am calling my doctor TODAY to get off these meds.... Thanks

I am a 49 year old female who started on 10 gm Lisinopril 2 weeks ago for high blood pressure. I've had a couple instances of light-headedness and headaches, nothing serious, but I have developed a real bad dry cough that I can't control. Sometimes it's bad enough I gag and almost vomit, and am loud enough I can be heard all through the office - very embarrassing. I've gotten up in the middle of the night to leave the bedroom so I won't disturb my husband. Other than the cough I have no complaints and actually feel better now than I did before I started. I read somewhere that iron supplements help the cough and I have started taking these to see if it's true; so far I think the cough is not as bad but still as frequent. It's only been a couple of weeks so I want to keep going for a few weeks longer to see if things get better or worse.

I have been on lisiniprol with hctz on 10mg dose since October 2008. My BP averaged around 144/95 before taking the med, now averages about 122/78. The problem i am having is this constant "tickle" in my throat which has been giving me coughing fits. When i breathe in deep i can feel a sensation to cough, sometimes my throat feels tight and sore, the first time i felt this was December 2008 and the doctor said it was a touch of post nasal drip and this was before i have read stuff on this board. Has anyone else experienced this kind of sensation in the throat? sometimes when i talk i even have to cough, i experimented once and did not take my dose and it seemed my throat felt better but then noticed my bp went right back up, i guess i better tell the doctor to get me off of this drug. She did tell me that the cough was part of the side effect. thanks and hope someone answers this.

I have been taking lisinopril for about 15 years and had no problems..until yesterday! I had to go to the ER room. My face blew up like a balloon and had a rash all over my body My lips swelled so much that they were beginning to crack and bleed. I was told it was the lisinopril by the doctor in the ER. They put me on a steroid and benadryl thru intervenience. I had to wait a few hours to make sure my tongue wasn't going to swell. I was told in the ER that you could take this medication for fifty years and then one day this could happen.
The doctor dais it was a good thing I came to the ER room. My tongue could have swelled and then I would have had a severe case of not being able to breath.I was told to go home and throw them in the garbabe. He called my doctor and called in a new script. I haven't picked it up yet
Just wanted to warn any one if you get any swelling and a rash go to the ER asap.

I've been on Lisinopril 20mg for a week now. I have been having the hoarseness, leg cramps, tired (no energy), getting no sleep, and cough. But what worries me most is my blood pressure has dropped to what I think is TO LOW, (example: 87/60, 90/58, 96/66 89/68. I called my dr. 2 days ago and explained my concerns. They told me to cut my 20mg pill in half and we will decide what to do at my next appt. which is in a few days. Even after cutting the pill in half, my bp is still running 96/67, 98/66. Should I demand to be taken off the Lisinopril and be put on a different medication?

First I want to say, after reading several posts, that it seems a lot of you are taking Topamax without food, which may be causing your "spaciness." My doctor suggested always taking it with food, even though it says with or without food, and I only experienced spaciness the few times I took it at bedtime without food. Once I started taking it with breakfast and dinner, that never happened again.

I am a 48 year old woman, prescribed Topamax in September of 08 for migraine associated vertigo without headaches, with facial numbness. The first thing I noticed was I immediately had headaches, which to me indicated it was dehydrating me as that is the only time I get a "normal" headache. So I knew I had to drink a lot of water. Soon after starting Topamax I developed a dry cough that lasted the entire time I was on the med. I did not relate it to the drug at the time, however. It never even occurred to me. After about two months on the drug I started having trouble breathing with extreme dryness in my airways. I was prescribed an albuterol inhaler which did not help. I was then prescribed a corticosteroid inhaler which also did not help. I thought the trouble breathing was from taking Nadolol which I was prescribed for occasional heart fluttering - the neurologist said this was a normal side effect of Topamax. I stopped taking the Nadolol but the trouble breathing continued. I also had more migraines with vertigo and facial numbness than before I started taking the drug. I hoped it would eventually stop and the drug would kick in to help the vertigo, so I stayed on the drug. I had very minor tingling in my feet, but it was tolerable. I became very stressed out, had trouble sleeping, depression, my face started breaking out in November (and still is), I lost interest in everything that I normally enjoy - reading, photography, following politics in the news (sort of an obsession of mine). In December I was so depressed that for the first time in my 11 year career I started canceling appointments and eventually took three weeks off from work to "re-group." In January the neurologist decided that we would increase the dose from 100 mg to 150 mg for one more month, and if it did not get rid of my migraines with vertigo, we would discontinue the drug. The first day on the increased dose I had a killer headache, and I drank 150 ounces of water before it went away. That night I did not have to go to the bathroom during the night, unheard of for me. That's a lot of water to drink and not have to pee. Within two days of increasing the dose, my cough became much worse, and within three days, the breathing became more difficult. Within five days, I was having trouble speaking because my airways felt so dry. I called the doctor the next morning and he said it was not the drug, but if I wanted to, stop taking it. So I went off it cold turkey, per his instructions. I had rebound migraines every day for a week or two and my heart was pounding, sometimes for three or four hours at a time. Eventually the cough and trouble breathing went away, however, I had to continue drinking lots of water or I would notice that I didn't have to urinate, sometimes not at all. Again, unheard of for me. I saw a cardiologist at the neurologist's urging and they said the heart pounding was just anxiety. I disagree, as did another doctor of mine. We both believe it was withdrawal. I have now found out (by getting copies of my medical records) that the neurologist is now attributing all of my side effects from the Topamax to "somatization." In other words, psychosomatic - not a side effect, but just a way of getting medical attention. I am seeing a few people on this board who have also experienced a dry cough and trouble breathing. Can I have the same side effects as other people and have them still be psychosomatic, even though I had no idea those side effects could occur? I don't think so.

I have a theory that Topamax interferes with hormones which causes a lot of the side effects like lack of concentration, memory loss, anxiety, depression, insomnia, acne, and hair loss - all symptoms of peri-menopause and menopause. Ask any woman in her 40's or 50's if she has these symptoms and most of them will say yes. My face has not been this broken out since high school! My hair is falling out at a rapid rate. I won't even bother mentioning these to the neurologist. He'll just say it's not the drug.

I'm very frustrated and not sure what to do at this point. The neurologist has me taking a supplement called Migrelief now, but I think it takes three months to kick in, so I have no relief at this point.

Has anyone else experienced the trouble breathing with dry cough? I don't believe for a moment that it was psychosomatic.

I have had bronchitis for 3 weeks. I first was prescribed a 5-day Z-pack, which didn't do the trick. Went back to the clinic doctor, as I don't have insurance, and I switched to Levaquim, 500mg/day, once a day, for 7 days. Its now 5 days in and I'm still sick. I don't cough a lot because of the Hydromet cough syrup, but I can tell I'm still sick.

Side effects have been insomnia mainly, and a sporadic inability to concentrate. I have not been nauseas at all, nor have I had any of the joint or other pain reported by other people. I can't even be sure the side effects I have had are from the Levaquin, as opposed to the cough syrup.