I am a 31 year old male, in decent shape (play basketball, volley...

An update to this.. Last night I had a mini panic attack at bed time and I *know* my bp was elevated. It felt almost like I had waaaaaaaay too much caffeine and wanted to jump out of my skin. I haven't yet started on the Diovan and have now been off Lisinopril for 4 days.

Please reconsider taking Diovan HCT as well. I was on Diovan HCT 320/12.5 mg for years and just got off of them during the Christmas holidays, 2008. I was taking energy pills/drinks for the fatigue, Allegra for sinus problems, muscle relaxers and Advil for joint and muscle pains, my hands and feet would tingle, go cold, and then numb. In addition, I gained weight and my hair was coming out by the hand full. Please go to drugs.com to see comments on Diovan/Diovan HCT. After reading comment and side effects of Diovan, I understood the causality of all my other medical problems. I switched doctors immediately, because he had me see his dim witted PA, who tried to talk about everything but my problems with taking Diovan HCT.

At any rate, I have been on Lisinopril (20 mgs twice a day) for almost 3 months and I think it's worst then Diovan HCT. One (1) week after my start with Lisinopril, I had a sever cold/the flu…it lasted for 2 weeks. I am also just getting over a second upper respiratory infection since I have been on this drug. I have all the other symptoms I had before with Diovan HCT and in addition to those, I have severe pelvic pain (to the point where I can not stand), diarrhea, sciatica, and migraines.

I am elated I found this site...I am off of the Lisinopril...and am on the hunt for new BP meds.

I hope this reply helps with your decision!

Thanks! Basically I never got started on the Diovan and decided to just wait until I get a new cardiologist where I lived now since I moved. I still take the Metoprolol (25mg), but that never seemed to have any side affects so I'm fine with staying on that.

I've been doing great with exercising pretty much daily and all of those symptoms I had with Lisinopril have gone away. I continue to take a small zinc supplement just in case. I haven't really checked my BP lately, but I know it stayed pretty much at normal for weeks after discontinuing the meds, so we'll see.

I had a similar experience to yours withLisinopril HCT, but without the cough. Extreme brain, arm, and neck fatigue and very interrupted light sleep. Oh, and the weight gain. About 10 lbs.

My experience with Diovan was much the same.

I now consider myself simply "salt-sensitive" and am using sea salt and taking over-the-counter potassium and magnesium. Both have helped my edema (swelling of the lower legs).

I don't know if I'd agree completely with your statement that doctors are "just working in the interest of the drug companies to boost their income". I think they are just doing the best they can with the information they have. Unfortunately, all of their information is provided by the drug companies or their agents (the not-so-independent scientists). The drug companies have also adjusted the definition of hypertensive so that more people fall into this category. "More potential customers! Yay!" Are these people with 130/90 BP really hypertensive? Twenty years ago they weren't, but now they get Lisinopril HCT or Diovan HCT and pretty soon they are really sick!!

Hope you are doing well,
Janet

I had a similar experience to yours withLisinopril HCT, but without the cough. Extreme brain, arm, and neck fatigue and very interrupted light sleep. Oh, and the weight gain. About 10 lbs.

My experience with Diovan was much the same.

I now consider myself simply "salt-sensitive" and am using sea salt and taking over-the-counter potassium and magnesium. Both have helped my edema (swelling of the lower legs).

I don't know if I'd agree completely with your statement that doctors are "just working in the interest of the drug companies to boost their income". I think they are just doing the best they can with the information they have. Unfortunately, all of their information is provided by the drug companies or their agents (the not-so-independent scientists). The drug companies have also adjusted the definition of hypertensive so that more people fall into this category. "More potential customers! Yay!" Are these people with 130/90 BP really hypertensive? Twenty years ago they weren't, but now they get Lisinopril HCT or Diovan HCT and pretty soon they are really sick!!

Hope you are doing well,
Janet

I agree.. I think I stated that when I was just fed up with the meds. Great points Janet. I know my doctors are all trying their best and are genuinely concerned about my health and know that in most cases the benefits outweigh the side affects or risks. On one hand I don't want to regret not keeping my BP low, 30 years from now, but at the same time it's so hard when you're still young to think there's some silent thing going on that's harming you so much you have to reduce your quality of life, even if slightly, to keep it at bay. Frustrating. Everything is based on statistics and probabilities of course, so it's not always the same from individual to individual.