Lisinopril and pounding heartbeat

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.

I am a reasonably healthy 57 year old male, 6' 1", 220 lbs. I started taking Lisinopril 10mg about 1 year old for HPB. My BP was all over the chart, but averaged at about 160/80. After being on Lisinopril for about 1 week, I noticed that my BP would be about 130/70 in the mornings, but jump back up to about 150/75 in the evenings. I have never achieved the 120/70 range that others talk about. It was also at this time that I developed the tickle and dry cough. I lose sleep by waking up coughing. The cough also comes on at any time, day or night. Sometimes I cough until I feel my head is going to explode. I never cough up anything. Always dry.

Over the last year, I have had other side effects that have come and gone and come back again. Among them have been itchy skin, numbness in fingers and toes, chest pains (EKG's and stress tests were fine), stomach pains, back pain, jaw pain, pounding heartbeat, racing heartbeat, loss of sex drive, erectile dysfunction, vivid dreams (when I sleep), feelings of dread and recurring thoughts of something happening to family members.

Since I do not have any prescription coverage in my insurance, I was happy to find a $4.00 drug, but now that the refills have run out, I think that I will ask the doctor for something else.