Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion #1 AS Web Support Group muscle relaxant and blood pressure med?

my zanaflex lowers my BP to ~80-100 / 55-70. only for about an hour or two, but still. it's ok by itself, just knocks me out so i take it at bedtime.

supposed to start a blood pressure med (ACE inhibitor) this week. a bit concerned that the two will drop my BP too much. My GP brushed the question off as trivial. the pharmacist and i agreed i should take one at night and one in the AM.

anyone here taking both. if your muscle relaxant lowers your bp, how do you take the two meds?

Turns out I can take the muscle relaxant at bedtime and then the blood pressure med 12 hours later / before.

Of course too, I don't think the blood pressure med is doing much of anything because when i stopped the muscle relaxant to see if the BP med was "working", it doesn't really seem to be.

But at least the combo didn't put me in a coma, so that's good.

Well, that's good news. And you are awake to post your results. Another good news item. But a bummer that it doesn't seem to be working on your blood pressure. Bet they raise the dose, after which you will have to try your test once again.

Thanks! Yes, I agree. Though sometimes I think maybe it is working? Most mornings now it is down in the 120s or 130s over 80s but still sometimes 140s over 90s. But if we need to increase med, then yes, will have to be cautious all over again.

120/80 for a morning reading is almost good. That it's not every morning may just be a matter of needing more time on it before increasing. My sweetheart has a BP med he takes a lunchtime to supplement the morning one and that has been very helpful. He's not on a muscle relaxant, however. What concerns me is that if the muscle relaxant lowers your blood pressure, is that a sign that the high BP is due to the stress of your disease on your system? Or is that just normal for Zanax?

I tend to be extremely cautious when it comes to these things, but that's mainly due to my sweetheart's proclivity to adverse reactions to almost every med he takes. Honest to Pete. Just be careful, OK? I hate hearing that the next course of action is to increase a med. If you know what I mean.

Love and warm hugs,