Suggest Treatment For High BP And Shortness Of Breath

Posted on Sat, 20 Jun 2015

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Sat, 20 Jun 2015 Answered on

Mon, 13 Jul 2015 Last reviewed on

Question : Hi! I started to get high blood pressure and shortness of breath last year. Also was getting occasionally blurry vision. Doctor prescribed lissinopril and simvastatin but they made me having heart palpitations, shortness of breath, headache on left side of my head..Doctor ordered EKG, Heart stress test, blood work but all came normal. Then doctor prescribed valsartan which controlled my blood pressure very well to 120-75 for 3 months until started to get the headache on the left side of my head and dizziness which lasts 2-3 days sometimes, feeling doomed, then goes away..Also get heart palpitations when have a soda or a beer or two socially...I never had heart palpitations before.. Headaches I had them occasionally after I had a glass of vine or drink with friends but not this way which lasts 30 min...then I feel fine for 3-4 hours...then comes again stays and goes.Also bad weather brings headaches too.. To be known is that I have stressful job and stressful family life.. Any advice for further tests? Thanks

Answered by Dr. Benard Shehu (3 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Following answer to your query...

Detailed Answer:
Hi and thank you for asking!
I read your query and understood your concern.

Headache may be cause also from:
- Sinusitis
- Neurological issues
- Hypertension
- Side effects of the medications

Head ache may be a side effect of valsartan and lovastatin use and if it become unsupportable you may stop these drugs and switch to other drugs.

In order that you determine which of these drugs is causing your symptoms I would recommend to stop them both and to begin only valsartan and to wait for a month. If the pain is gone away than lovastatin is causing your symptoms.

More over If you were my patient I would run all the necessary test to exclude other causes of headache including:
- Skull x ray (for sinusitis)
- EEG (electro encephalo graphy)
- Head ct scaner (to exclude any neurological issues).

Hope this was of help!
Wish you health!
Dr. Shehu

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar