Treating high blood pressure can be a challenge requiring changes to a lot of things in your life.
But there is an option out there that can help you treat it while you
or even if you ve been on it for a long time. You gotta keep watching because we are going to
go over the most important things you need to know if you going to take this pill.
The first thing we need to get out of the way is why you need to care. Blood pressure is a
big deal. It s the leading contributing factor in causing heart disease and strokes as well as
contributing to things like kidney disease. Going years and years with untreated high blood pressure
is going to get you in trouble. But medication is not the only thing you should be doing to
treat it. You can t just be relying on a pill to fix years of crummy life choices like poor diet,
lack of exercise and smoking. You need to clean those things up if you are going to have any
lasting success and maintain a healthy life. But the realistic fact, is that these things take time
and sometimes despite all you have tried your blood pressure is still high. That s where
medications come in and Hydrochlorothiazide can be a great option when this is needed.
Hydrochlorothiazide is a long name and it s kind of hard to pronounce so a lot
of the tiem we refer to it as HCTZ for short. I mentioned in the intro that HCTZ
helps you lower your blood pressure while doing every day activities lying peeing.
It does this by being what we call a diuretic. It works on your kidneys to help you pee out
extra fluid from the blood vessels thereby decreasing the pressure inside of them.
It belongs to a class of medication called the Thiazide diuretics. They block certain
electrolytes like sodium and chloride in the kidneys to help regulate how much fluid is kept.
Other examples of thiazide diuretics are medicines like indapamide, chlorthalidone and metolazone
Now this is the question that most of you are here for. If a medicine makes you feel awful
or causes more problems than it solves, then it s probably not a good choice for you. The good news
about HCTZ is that for the majority of people they do great with it with minimal to no side
effects. But, certainly there are some common ones that can happen that you should watch out for.
First of all, it s a diuretic so it s going to make you pee more. That s the whole point of it.
For most though they may notice this at first but then either their body just normalizes
or they just get used to it. People who may not do as well with it are those who don t have an easy
access to a bathroom. If I were treating this guy for example, it may not be a good choice.
The other big one that we can see is that it starts to work too well and it may make you
dizzy or light headed. Often you get that head rush feeling when standing up too quickly.
Besides those, sometimes you can get some abdominal pain, headaches, decreased appetite,
sensitivity to the sun, decreased libido, erectile dysfunction and a feeling of weakness.
As well it can just make some feel dehydrated and dry.
Most of these things if they happen tend to be mild and we can work our way around them
but if they are persistent then talk to your doctor about being on something different.
There are some more serious things that you need to be aware of, ans is the reason
you need to followup with your doctor on a frequent basis while taking this medication.
These effects are rare, but they are possible. The most common one would be electrolyte changes.
Because of how the medicine works to make you pee more, it works on how your kidney s process sodium
and potassium. In some this can lead to low levels of these. Very low Sodium or potassium levels can
be dangerous leading to neurologic or heart problems. It can put you at risk for pancreatitis,
sudden glaucoma, certain severe skin rashes, certain kind of anemias and kidney failure.
So if while taking it, you start having symptoms of severe abdominal pain,
eye pain, severe rashes, palpitations or if you start feeling very weak and
lethargic while taking it, you need to get into your doctor right away
If you have gout or are at risk for gout then you should be careful or avoid taking this medication.
It can make it more likely for you to get a flare. Others who should avoid it are
those who are allergic to sulfa drugs, severe chronic kidney disease, severe liver disease,
those who have lupus or a history of pancreatitis.
This isn t a medication that you want to start taking and not followup with your doctor.
Because of the problems that especially can happen with your electrolytes,
you should have regular bloodwork while taking it. Most will check some labs before starting it and
then within a few weeks to a month afterwards and then periodically after that. After stable on it,
you still should t go for more than a year without having your bloodwork done.
Also, it s been found that those who have taken over 50,000 mg in their lifetime,
that would mean if you have been taking 25mg daily for over 5 years, you may want to consider
getting annual skin checks as there is a link to increased risk of non-melanoma skin cancers.
And lastly, I usually caution my patients that while taking it, if they get sick and
are vomiting a lot, or have severe diarrhea and not taking in fluids they may want to hold off on
taking it during this time as it can affect a lot more your electrolytes. This may hold
true as well if you are outside doing heavy work and a lot of sweating. This would be a
great question to ask your doctor and see what they would want you to do in this situation.
Hydrochlorothiade comes in 12.5, 25 and 50mg doses. The most common doses are either 12.5
and 25mg. Several studies have shown that there is rarely a significant benefit for taking over
25 mg. Doses 50mg or above can increase your risk of more serious side effects. It is designed to be
taken once a day, but because it does make you pee more, I recommend that you take it in the morning.
There s nothing wrong with taking it at night other than it may keep you up.
This is a big NO! You need to continue to drink water and fluids as you normally would,
if not more. You need to maintain good hydration despite taking something to make you pee more.
Let your kidney s do the work they need to do. You just keep them well supplied with water.
This is the beautiful thing about this medication. It s generic and it s cheap.
You can get a 30 day supply at most pharmacies for around $4.
So as of October 2021, you may have heard about a recall that involves hydrochlorothiazide.
This recall came from one pharmaceutical company called Lupin pharmacetuicals who recalled certain
batches of two blood pressure medications they make. One is Irbesartan and the other is a
combination of Irbesartan and hydrochlorothiazide. There was an additive found in that batch that
contained some impurities in the irbesartan portion of it. Since these were combined with the
hydrochlorothiazide it was included in the recall. There weren t any issues with hydrochlorothiazide
itself. If you have any questions though, make sure you talk to your pharmacist to
make sure your medicine isn t included. So that s it, that is what you need to know
if you want to take advantage of lowing your blood pressure while you do your daily thing.
This isn t an exhaustive list of everything that could be known but It gives you the important
things that hopefully will help you make a good decision with your doctor. Overall, it s a great
tool if you need to reach for medication to help control your high blood pressure.
If you monitor it closely with your doctor, in conjunction with diet and exercise,
it can be a safe and easy way to help decrease your risk of heart attack and stroke.
So thanks again for taking a few minutes of your time to be with us today. I love that you
are taking an interest in your own health. The more you can be informed, the better decisions
you can make for yourself. That s why we create these videos, so you can take a bigger role in
your health. So thanks again for being with us and we hope to see you in the next video.