Lisinopril side effects symptoms and conditions

Wow, amazing that I am not the only one with Lisinopril side effects that are life affecting! First off, I am 26 years old, overweight but never had HBP until my son was born 4 months ago and now it won't go down. I average in the 130's/80's. I have only been on Lisinopril for 9 days and I have been having extreme weakness in my limbs, horrific anxiety, and my chest feels like I am about to have a heart attack. Had an echocardiogram 2 months ago and all was normal except trace tricuspid insufficiency, which the cardiologist said was nothing to worry about. I ended up in the ER yesterday thinking I was having a heart attack because I almost passed out and was so weak in my arms and legs. Blood work was all normal and I had two EKG's, which were normal despite a slightly elevated heart rate, because I was freaked out. I decided I am going to stop taking the Lisinopril and see how I do. I will control my own HBP with exercise and weight loss.

I was on Benicar for several years with no side effects whatsoever. I'm 42 with borderline high blood pressure and it worked great. I switched to Lisinopril in March/April due to the cost of Benicar and the fact I got laid off the first of the year and no longer have insurance. I discussed this with my Dr. and he recommended Lisinopril due to the cost. He did warn me the cough was a side effect but thought I would try it anyway.

At first everything was fine, but the past month has been a nightmare. Horrible cough, especially at night, the past few weeks I've got next to no sleep. I was sitting here at 1am last night unable to sleep and decided to do a search on Lisinopril side effects and found this forum. Needless to say, my eyes have been opened, as I have experienced a lot of these same side effects since starting the drug, but didn't really put it all together until reading these posts, and it's like looking into a mirror! The cough, the constant muscle pain like I exercised too much, occasion hip and leg pain I didn't have a few months ago, the "fuzzy brain" and listless feelings, I've experienced it all.

As of tonight I am stopping the drug, calling my Dr. and getting lined up for something else. As soon as I get some medical insurance back I'm back on Benicar, until then I'm getting off this stuff. I would rather watch my BP closely than keep coughing up my lungs like I'm currently doing. =)

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!

I see there are 2,150 postings on this website for Lisinopril side effects. Out of the 2 pages of postings I have read I have only seen 2 post that gave positive feedback regarding this drug. I am scared to read anymore postings this is sickening me more and more to know that peoples lives are being altered in such a way.THIS DRUG IS AWFULLLLL!! IT IS RUINING PEOPLES LIVES! Something needs to be done about this.The pharmaceutical companies are making billions of dollars off this drug and it's making people sicker than they were before they started taking this.I wish I would have known of this site before I started taking this drug now I have things going on with me that may be irreversible. I stopped taking Lisinopril 1 1/2 months ago and am still having awful complications.This drug isn't just affecting pregnant women and infants, it's affecting thousands of people.While I love children and am very sympathetic my life along with everyone else on this site and everywhere else in the worlds life is beneficial. I mean a lot to my loved ones and so do all of you, with that being said something needs to be done. This drug needs to be reported to the FDA we need to ban together and do something does someone have to DIE for something to be done about this drug?! Until something is done other people will be affected by this drug and maybe by the time they read these post it will be too late for them.

I have been on Lisinopril& Hydrochlorothiazide 10mg/12.5 for several years at lease 6-7, I am always tired, no energy, thought it might be my heart just had it checked out everything OK. Now I'm starting to believe its this blood pressure meds. Could somebody give me a answer. Thanks

There are many, many pages of Lisinopril side effects on here, very scary. I started taking this med and was only on a short while after reading these posts. I took myself off the small dose of 12.5 mg. and BP went up. I put myself back on again, but half the dose which seemed to do it for the high BP. However, I really don't like the way I feel on this drug at all. I can relate with many of the posts about the chest pressure, heartburn like feeling and a pressure feeling in my head. It's hard to tell whether it's symptoms of a stroke or heart attack!!! I've become so paranoid and lie awake at night thinking I'm going to die. You can't win -- if you don't take it you are damaging your blood vessels from high BP. What are the alternatives and are any other meds going to do the same thing? I know loss of weight and exercise are two big ones, but that's easier said than done.

Amazing! Just now I decided to check on Lisinopril side effects.
Imagine my surprise when I found the first posting described me!!
Morning cough, persistent runny nose, left ear problems!!!
Also have the dizziness and faint feeling on occasion.
Have been on Lisinopril-hctz 20 for two years and my symptoms have suddenly gotten worse with headaches.

I appreciate the information this site has provided and DO BELIEVE.

I am a 48-year-old male that is still pretty active playing competitive soccer several times per week. I am in good health except that my BP was considered a little high back four years ago and was originally put on a diuretic which made me cramp up easily on the soccer field. I asked my doctor for something different and was changed over to Atenolol. I have been living with the Atenolol side effects for that time and finally had enough. I had recently moved and changed doctors. Now was a good time to complain about the restless nights that I attribute to Atenolol (insomnia is one side effect). My new doctor knowing that I am an athlete suggested Lisinopril.
Again, my research is after the fact and was really spurred by a trip back home and a chat with my brother who is 49 and was just recently put on Liprinopril too. He described some bazaar conditions that he believed were Lisinopril side effects. When researched, he was right. He experienced the blackness or tunnel vision and the feeling of passing out while at work. He felt that he couldn’t drive as the effects where hampering his ability to do so. He stopped taking the drug and started a regiment of fish oil with his other daily supplements. This was two months ago and he is doing great. He too is still an athlete and runs in Masters Track & Field.
For me, it was a little different. I started Lisinopril on a Friday as my Atenolol had just run out on Thursday. I asked the Pharmacist if there was an issue with starting Lisinopril after stopping Atenolol only one day apart. She said there were no issues. 5 days later, Wednesday, while at work I developed an incredible lower back pain on the left side. I began to have nausea and heavily salivate as if I was going to throw up. I ran to the bathroom where I sat on the toilet for a half hour rubbing my back & hip believing it was some intestinal issue or gas. To no avail… When I felt stabile enough, I left work only to sit in my car wondering if was going to be able to drive and if I could should I drive home or to the hospital. Well, I drove home and went to bed for a couple of hours before I felt well enough to function normally. It’s been two weeks and the dull lower back pain that feels similar to a back strain persists. I’ll be heading back to the doctor with this information and will start the fish oil with my daily supplementation program.
Thanks to this website because I was able to find at least five examples out of about the first twenty postings that matched my suspected side effects.

My husband (57 years old) started Lisinopril in March of 2007 for High Blood Pressure and he's never been the same. At first, we didn't connect the symptoms but now I am convinced this drug caused his problems. His symptoms include loss of memory, can't concentrate, can't retain anything, short tempered, depression. At times confusion or unable to grasp anything requiring multi-tasking. He had a loss of appetite where in lost 25 pounds in less than 6 months. He described months ago that "his head just doesn't feel right". When asked...do you have a headache...he'd reply.."I can't explain it...it just doesn't feel right. The depression has lead to another drug "Lexapro". This drug interferes with concentration too!
Prior to taking Lisinopril my husband was running his own business and working a full time job he's had for years. Within 6 months, our lives changed drastically. I know 2 other people experiencing the memory loss, can't concentrate, can't retain symptoms around the same age as my husband... all taking Lisinopril.

All of this has been weighing heavily on his mind because his mother has been diagnosed with Dementia/Alzeheimers at age 74. Guess what...she has been taking Lisinopril for years and years and has been treating for depression for years and years....any connection here? This drug has been around for many years and it seems like every elderly person is taking this for High Blood Pressure. Could this be a culprit to Dementia/Alzheimers? A reoccurring theme I see amongst all of these side effects is "depression".

Of course when we discussed these symptoms with his Doctor...we were pooh poohed with "I've never heard of these symptoms in 20 years of practicing". Well, he needs to do some research! My husband quit taking this drug on Sept 12th which takes 2-3 weeks to get out of your system. I noticed recently he didn't struggle at all at the ATM machine. I'm hoping this is the culprit as we are now in the process of getting a second opinion to determine if he may be in the early stages of Alzheimers. We pray that he is not! Get this drug off the market!!!

Lisinopril robs the body of Zinc. I have been viciously researching this med and I found that a lot of symptoms posted here are zinc deficiency symptoms. Maybe a zinc supplement will help especially with the hair loss.
Signs of Zinc Deficiency
• behavioral and sleep disturbances

• dandruff

• delay in wound healing

• diarrhea

• different kinds of skin lesions such as eczema, psoriasis and acne

• growth retardation

• hair loss

• hang nails

• hyperactivity

• increased allergic sensitivity

• inflammation of your nail cuticles

• inflammatory bowel disease

• loss of appetite

• loss of senses of taste or smell

• loss of sex drive

• mild anemia

• pre-eclampsia (toxaemia) in pregnancy and post-natal depression

• pre-menstrual syndrome, disturbance in your menstrual cycle

• reduced fertility

• skin dryness and rashes

• white spots on fingernails, transverse lines and poor nail growth

Male, age 39, bp at worst 148/88 in Dr.'s office, 137/78 at worst at home, both parents had history of heart disease before passing away at age 67, 20 mg. of lisinopril.

Side effects experienced during the 9 months on this stuff: Anxiety, CHEST PAIN!, tingling in hands and feet, pounding heartbeat at night, drowsiness, stomach discomfort.

First, let me say that the medication worked in keeping my blood pressure down. I was in the 115/65 range at best, 130/80 at worst (rarely).

BUT, this stuff made me feel like absolute crap and led to many sleepless night due to anxiety. I would have chest pains along my rib cage. The pain wasn't usually in the same spot, but moved around. These sharp, stabbing pain episodes lasted anywhere from 2 minutes (pain coming every 30 seconds or so) to the entire afternoon (resulting in two trips to the ER where the EKG was normal).

With a history of heart disease in my family, I'm very aware of chest pain of any kind, and this drove me nuts until I found this website. I thought I was having heart attacks! My doctor had no idea that chest pain could be a side effect of this drug and when I told him it was #4 on the list of most side effect complaints, he was shocked. He thought it was well tolerated.

I went off the 20 mgs for about a month and then the doctor talked me into going back on 10 mgs after a doctor.'s visit and a 148/88 reading. I was fine for the first day, then the anxiety and chest pains returned along with the drowsiness (couldn't make it past 7 PM without falling asleep in the lazy-boy). Enough of this crap! I threw out the bottle. No more.

Help! My 86-year-old mother takes Lisinopril. She takes it in the morning and is very sluggish until around 4 p.m., when suddenly she snaps out of it and goes back to being normal. She has constant diarrhea and feels miserable most of the time. When we were in the hospital this past weekend, she was very sluggish - almost to the point of thinking she's got some kind of mental problem - when they took her BP around noon: it was 90/60. As the afternoon wore on, it rose to 120/70, then - around 4, sure enough, it was up to 140/80. She's not diabetic, so doesn't have to worry about her kidneys. She had a heart attack 7 years ago, and has slightly elevated BP. After reading some of these posts, I'm thinking her problem might be the Lisinopril. When we see her doctor Monday, I'm going to ask about it. I'll be armed with the comments on this web site, plus Internet discussions of Lisinopril side effects. I hope I can convince her doctor to put her on something else. Anyway, does this sound familiar to any of you?

I am hoping that this will help at least one person, to get off of lisinopril
There is a big difference between "side effects" and actual symtoms that are happening to most of us that take lisinopril.
Side effects usually occur shortly after taking a certain medication.
i took lisinopril for 2 years and gradually all the symptoms escallated and continued to get worse over time. i tought i was dying, i did so many test to find out what was wrong with me, cost a fortune, eventually i realised that all of these things were being caused by lisinopril.
I had shortness of breath,muscle weakness, joint pain, after every meal i was so bloated and a very heavy feeling at night , i could hardly turn in my bed because of being so weak and felling heavy, and the worse was this lump in my throat that got worse every day until i could not swallow or even breath i decided to do MRI ,found nothing , i ran out of lisinopril medication and this immediately got better, i have stopped taking for 1 month and i feel a lot better but still trying to recover from these "side Effects"

i have high BP and was on a med that worked well but was rather expensive, so i asked my Doc if we could try something more affordable. he put me on Lisinopril and within a few days of starting this med i had headaches, coughing, upset stomach and dizzyness. i assumed this would be temporary as per getting used to the new med, but it only got worse... and by 2 months later i was also having shortness of breath, constant fatigue and trouble sleeping. i looked up Lisinopril side effects online and called my Doc to say that i was having many problems with this med, he assured me it was not the Lisinopril and to keep taking it. on Sept 28th 2007, i went in to see the Doc and my BP was still a bit high so he doubled the dosage of Lisinopril. 2 days after i started the new dosage i had such serious breathing problems i was literally gasping for air and had to go to Emergicare, my BP had come down and the Doc at Emergicare said the breathing problems were just seasonal allergies and prescribed some Prednisone which he said would help. he also said i might want to come in for some Nebulizer treatments. i continued to take the double dosage of Lisinopril and was so sick every day that i no longer even cared what happened to me. i had a constant pounding headache, chills/body aches, blurred vision, nausea, weakness, coughing, fuzzy confused feeling, and i felt totally exhausted...breathing was still difficult and at night just rolling over in bed caused me to gasp for air. well 2 days ago i could not take it anymore and called my Doctors office to firmly explain that the med was making me VERY ill, they said they would get a message to my Doc right away and in like 5 minutes they called back and said STOP this med immediately!! well it's been 48 hours now since the last dose of Lisinopril and i feel much better already. i still have a headache but the other problems are fading down to very mild. i can even breath again YAY....i only hope that in a few more days i will feel normal again. to ANYONE reading this dont take this med, it will make you very, very sick!! and for those of you who actually are on this stuff please pay attention to how you are feeling and tell your Doctor right away, dont ignore the side effects.. make your Doctor listen and tell him how you feel even if it seems like mild issues bcause it will get worse!! good luck and peace to all.. :)

I was on Lisinopril for 4 months. I had some coughing, the gag reflex, and a general feeling of malaise. My depression was bad at times and I imagined myself committing suicide more than once. I also began to grind my teeth at night. I have been off of the poison for 8 days and all side effects have subsided except for the teeth grinding. My teeth and jaws ache all the time. I had never experienced that problem before. I too went to the ER in the middle of the night about 2 months ago because I was sure I was having a heart attack or stroke. I finally made an appointment with a therapist 3 weeks ago to deal with the depression. She told me about Lisinopril side effects and I quit taking it. I owe her my life. I feel re-born. I am so happy to be alive!!!!
sara

I too was prescribed this horrible medication. I was to the point where I thought I had lung cancer or throat cancer. The coughing was horrible. I am a Supervisor and every time I talked to one of my workers I would break out in this horrible cough. I also had the night sweats, horrible dreams and weakness. Thank God for this website. I stopped taking this poison two weeks ago and the coughing is starting to subside, along with the weakness and fatigue. I will never take this medication again. Thanks for the website and the wonderful postings. I think if I had continued on this drug it would have killed me. Sherry in FL

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All you are Hypochondriacs. If one person says this medicine is causing this, then of course; you all have the same problem "some how." Isn't this weird? It is called the "placebo effect." Normally all the people involved in the testing are given "Lisinopril" (or some other drug), then the placebo group is given a vitamin supplement, the group receving the vitamin supplement is being told they are receving "Lisinopril." Mysteriously?, the "placebo group" is all feeling better and their symptoms are gone. This is due to the fact that all these people in the "placebo group" have interacted with eachother and have told eachother "I feel better" than of course everybody feels better. So WEIRD!! So, my point is this forum is all your peoples "placebo group." If you guys never heard of these side effects from this forum you would have never experinced them. Hypochondriacs all of you are. This is a very good medicine that is helping all of you make up for your peoples lack of self-disipline to control your diet or exercise enough to lower your blood pressure naturally. So be thankful. Lets not complain about false side effects because John has them. I wonder what the side-effects of that cheese burger are that caused high blood pressure. It is funny, I don't see a forum for that. So deal with your so called "side-effects" that are associsted with "Lisinopril" or go on a diet people. Get over it!!

My husband was given Lisinopril as a generic substitute. He developed a TERRIBLE cough and hip and leg pains. If these side effects are so prevalent, why does this medication continue to be prescribed????? I had no idea that the cough could be so bad- I was ready to call 911 the other night. I'm so happy I found this site- and sorry that other people are suffering from lisinopril side effects.

Oh... no I don't think Atenolol has any diuretic effects. You'd have to add another drug for that, but there are plenty of simple old-fashioned ones that work just fine and just for that. I meant to say I'm on 25mg of Atenolol -- not 24. Wow, your symptoms sound awful. My doctor wanted to increase me to 10mg/day! No way!!! Does anyone know of an ACE inhibitor for MR (Mitral regurgitation) that doesn't have the Lisinopril side effects?