I was first diagnosed with hypertension in the late 80's and have...

I am a patient who suffered similar problems from lisinopril; I am not a doctor.

The following constitutes some of the results of my trying to deal with breathing problems and throat pains, which it sounds like you are also having.

Breathing problems:

I think the breathing problems are two fold. One is the more physical on of having the cough and crap in the lungs.

The other appears to be a thyroid system interaction that even when you get a good breath in, it doesn't get properly utilized. If or when you have a feeling of shortness of breath that is deep and low in your abdomen instead of in your lungs, this could be the problem. What happens, I think, is that the body runs low on selenium, which is a critical mineral in the immune response especially to poisoning. This is well documented for mercury, lead other things, it is probably true for more complex poisons like snake venom (aka lisinopril) too. The various minerals are generally used in more than one bodily system, so if one system (e.g. the immune system) depletes a mineral than all systems that need it suffer - in this case the significant system that suffers from selenium depletion is the thyroid system. Now, a small amount of selenium is necessary for the production of thyroid hormone, but, that is not the whole story, even though doctors think it is. If you have your thyroid hormone level measured, it may be a bit low but so low that it alarms your doctor. However, selenium is also necessary for the ability of the thyroid hormone receptor cites to utilize the hormone. Without sufficient selenium, the amount of thyroid hormone (which may already be a bit low) is not sufficient to generate the release of energy necessary to help utilize air.

Selenocysteine is the more complex molecule necessary for the reception and response to the thyroid hormone; these receptors are all over the body and probably in organs like the pancreas and liver, which cooperate to release stored nutrients in response to heavier breathing and exertion.

Well, cysteine is also one of the most important proteins in the lungs, and is necessary to help repair them after damage. (I think it is also necessary for burn victims for skin repair.) But guess what: cysteine is also used by the body in neutralizing poisons, it is documented as being useful in Tylenol / acetaminophen overdoses.

So now we're talking about two nutrients that are being depleted by the immune system trying to clear out the lisinopril and its chemical by products. Also one of them is being used up for repair. And both of these are also needed by the thyroid system.

To address these problems:

Short term, I found it helpful to increase thyroid hormone somewhat using tyrosine or phenylalanine (not quite a strong). Also, in the short term, traditional asthma minerals molybdenum and manganese help. Also short term, guaifenesin may help clear the lungs.

Long term, I found it helpful to aid my immune system: zinc, selenium, cysteine, beta glucan were all helpful. Other things, but lower on the list as directly and long term helpful: calcium, magnesium.

And repair of the lungs also involves selenium and cysteine.

One should consider eating a lot of broccoli, since it has selenocysteine in it.

I would normally prefer natural food sources for nutrition, but I’m not sure that I could have recovered without supplements, as I was having so many problems.

And generally speaking, if you increase a few minerals for a more than a week or so, you’ll want to increase them other ones too a bit or you risk getting (further) out of balance. This is probably mostly true of copper as zinc competes with it in the gut for absorption.

Throat pain:

I found that I had several causes to lisinopril-related throat pain. One was that the chemical by products irritating the lungs were being coughed out and/or coming up and irritating my upper lung airways & trachea. The second was that swallowing that sticky stuff so frequently coming up from the lungs was irritating my throat, the esophagus. I found that never swallowing any of that stuff coming up from the lungs helped my throat a lot. It also helped my tummy. Before I stopped swallowing I could feel a burning stripe going down my throat all the way into my stomach, though it was worse toward the top and tapered off around the stomach area.

I have written about what helped me on this site several times, look for posts by guest222, guest0222, guest00222 or guest000222.

Best of luck to all!

(edit: but not so low that it alarms you doctor)

Jenny,
It sounds like you might have Sjogren's Syndrome. Find a good Rheumatologist and get checked out.

Misty

hAVEING THE SAME SYMPTOMS ONLY BEEN ON IT 3 DAYS. IM HAVEING BAD HEADACHES,CANT SLEEP AT NITE,DIZZY ALL DAY,NOT HUNGRY AT ALL,MOST OF ALL CHEST PAIN AND IM ONLY 38.I WAS PUT ON THIS FOR MY BLOODPRESSURE..JUST A FEELING OF NOT BEING WELL,YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN......Thanks, Michelle