Arimidex and high blood pressure

rreynolds1

Arimidex and high blood pressure

rreynolds1

Hi All,

I have been on Arimidex for 3 months and have none of the common side effects I have read about or warned about by my oncologist.  I went to my primary this afternoon because of sinus issues and my blood pressure was 140/100.  I have never had a reading that hight.  The only thing I have done differently is take Arimidex.  Anyone else develop high blood pressure while on Arimidex?

Thanks.

Roseann

ibeejojo

Hi Roseann.....Arimidex can raise both your blood pressure and cholesterol levels.  When I was first put on it I had problems with both but at the time they did not indicate it on their enclosure....they did refer to lipid profiles.  Since then it's my understanding that it is included in the drug information and doctors should be talking to their patients about it.  You might have to take something to get that under control.  Unfortunately, estrogen and aromatase can be our heart protectors (and bone) and when we cut it off it's like putting menopause into over drive and we end up having issues that we might not have had to deal with for a few years down the road.  You certainly don't want to survive BC only to have a heart attack.  Please check in with your primary and work on getting those numbers lower.  Also, ask your primary to do a lipid profile if for nothing else but a base line to see how the Arimidex affects it.  Take care....JO

rreynolds1

Thanks Jo.  No one ever mentioned blood pressure issues.  I will give my doctor a call tomorrow and let her know what happened at my primary vistit today. 

Rosean

fire

Hello!

I started Arimidex 3/2007.

I have great knee and legs pain, fatugue, weight gain,

memory was very bad, now is better, hot flashes was very bad, now is better( swimming helps).

Now I have blood pressure 140 - 150( don't remember low numbers) and holesterol - 308.

What should I do?

Does anybody has high holesterol, too?

ruthbru

get a home blood pressure moniter and measure it there  for awhile before you decide if it's high or not, any reading taken at a doctors office is bound to be high!!! I'm taking niacin for higher than I want cholesterol, and that has been working for me (with permission from and monitoring by family doctor). Also, I would say to talk about these issues with your general practitioner as oncologists just seem to know about cancer stuff. Good Luck!

fire

ruthbru , thank you very much.

ruthbru

You are welcome very much. My blood pressure is always fine at home, and is in the "Oh my God, I'm going to have a stroke!" range when I'm at the doctors. I keep a record my home monitoring and bring it with me when I go in so they know that really I'm fine just as long as I stay away from them !!!!!!!

KariWhite

I have been on Arimidex for about 4 years now.  I started to have blood pressure problem about a year ago.  Some days, for no apprant reason, my blood pressure will go up.  I asked my Onc about it, and he told me my blood pressure problem is not caused by Arimidex.  I am 5'5", 120 lbs, work out almost everyday.  I eat very carefully -- almost no meat at all.  I am not sure what caused my blood pressure problem.  I suspect Arimidex still.

Kari

hmm

Kari,

That surprises me as the possibility of high blood pressure from Arimidex is listed as one of  the side effects.

Pat 

fire

Kari, It is not surprises me because my ONC doesn't want to believe my legs problem from Arimidex...

Please advice me on what BP monitor to buy.

What food can lower BP? I heard greapfruit is good.

Kathy044

You might get some ideas from reading about the DASH Diet, (which has been proven in clinical studies to lower BP)

  http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/hbp/dash/new_dash.pdf

 I've been sucessfully trying some of the features of this diet to control my BPand as a result have been able to keep my simple diuretic medication down to the lowest possible dose. Basically it's a matter of balancing the minerals in the foods we eat, increase fruit (for potasium), nuts (for magnesium) and dairy (for calcium) while cutting waaay back in the amount of sodium found in baked goods and packaged processed foods.

pod1257

I had the same problem, when I was put on zolodex. I basically went into instant menopause. Each time I would go to the onc monthly for the shot they would say "your pressure is so high." It was really upsetting to me, as I had always had good pressure.

After trying to convince my internist for 9 mths that my pressure was too high (He said at 1st my pressure was just high from the stress or breast cancer. - Untrue as my 1st visit with the surgeon when I was stressed out of my mind, my pressure was fine. - before zolodex), he finally rxed bp meds. Now my pressure is around 110-115/65. Even though estrogen is bad for breast cancer it is very important for keeping BP at a normal level!

I do believe diet is very important as well. I was already pretty much following DASH. - Lot's of fruit and veggies, low sodium. One way to tell if you are eating low sodium is your urine should be clear-light yellow. (Just a tip). Also the more you eat low sodium, the more foods you used to like will taste to salty. Mag and calcium very important as well.

Julie

ruthbru

don't eat lot of grapefruit as it interfers with the absorption of Armidex (and also cholestreol medications), which is a shame because I love grapefruit

hmm

Ruth- I didn't know that grapefruit hinders the absorption of Arimidex. Is that in the warnings or did your doctor tell you?  Wow.

Pat

lbrewer

not in the warnings, but true unfortunately:

But now let's get back to those women who already have estrogen receptor positive breast cancer. If you have breast cancer that is dependent on estrogen for its growth, you may be taking a drug to limit the activity of estrogen in your body, like tamoxifen (Nolvadex) or one of the aromatase inhibitors (Arimidex, Aromasin or Femara) or one of the other estrogen inhibitors (Fareston, Faslodex). If you have estrogen receptor positive breast cancer, the last thing you'd want to take would be estrogen, and the last thing you'd want would be to take anything that increased the amount of estrogen in your body. With that in mind, and knowing that grapefruit increases the amount of estrogen in the body, it is probably wise for you not to consume grapefruit. According to Michael Thun, M.D., American Cancer Society (ACS) Vice President of Epidemiology and Surveillance Research, "women who have had estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer or are concerned for other reasons could consider substituting other fruit until this issue is clarified."

ruthbru

I had found the grapefruit problem in my own research (which lbrewer explains above). When I asked my oncologist, he said that you can drink an occasion glass, or eat an occasional grapefruit; just don't make it a part of your daily diet . Another thing that kind of sucks!!!!!

ruthbru

Oh yes, fire, any BP monitor at Walmart, Kmart, the drug store is fine. I just got a cheap one.

hmm

Thanks for sharing this info .........this was the first time I heard anything about the connection between grapefruit and Arimidex.

Pat

dorie-s

There are many medications, especially for high blood pressure, that carry a warning to NOT eat grapefruit or drink grapefruit juice.  And yes, Arimidex can give you high blood pressure.  I was only on Arimidex for one month and my b/p went up to the 200/100 range, even though I was on medication.  It was one of the reasons I had to quit taking Arimidex.  It also gave me non-stop diarrhea which caused me to bleed profusely everytime I had a bowel movement.  This required me to have a colonoscopy to see where I was bleeding and determine if I had to have a procedure to stop the bleeding.  Not fun!

navygirl

I never had an issue with high blood pressure, in fact, mine was routinely so low that anyone not familiar with my medical history would question it. It was normal for me to have a blood pressure of 90/65 or lower. I also did not have high cholesterol. Within 6 months of taking Arimidex, my bp and cholesterol/triglycerides skyrocket enough for the doc to take me off it. My bp went up to 160/120 (hr went up to 130 resting) and my Cholesterol went up to 360/triglycerides 490. The only change besides me working out 5 days a week and losing weight? Arimidex. I'm now on bp and cholesterol medication. Very disturbing considering where I was before starting on Arimidex. Highly recommend you speak with your onc about it, Arimidex may not be the right one for you. Best wishers!

NatureGrrl

My blood pressure is the lowest it's been in a year (100/65).  I started Arimidex in Feb.  But I've also been on lisinopril (for high BP) for a year (my BP went through the roof when I got my dx and didn't come down on its own) (gee, wonder why) and on Coreg for heart damage from Adriamycin/Herceptin since Feb., and Coreg also lowers BP.

I wouldn't let an occasional BP change concern me -- it's normal for your BP to fluctuate -- it can go up during stress, after moving around a lot (even moving through the grocery store), from drinking caffeine, etc.  As mentioned, get a home BP monitor and check it at the same time each day.  My nurses recommended taking it three times, one after the other, and getting an average for each time I took it, although most of the time those 3 readings were very close.   Get a resting measurement, not right after you've been running around the house or something.

I didn't know about grapefruit and estrogen; how does it increase estrogen?  Does anyone know? (I'll research it myself later, too).  Is this true of other citrus?  Man, you have to be a scientist to keep track of all the parameters and limitations and don't take this with that, etc....

I've had to struggle a bit with all the changes in my meds since I got cancer... from taking NO scripts and only the occassional vitamins before dx, and now I'm on seven (yes, 7!) scripts (although 2 of them are temporary) and a long list of OTC vitamins etc for various things (nails, neuropathy, calcium, etc etc).   Bottom line, which took me awhile to get to and I still have to remind myself of, is that these drugs are keeping me alive and healthy, and for me, the SE's are minimal to none... I've had to accept that taking drugs isn't automatically a bad thing.  Some drugs are bad for some people but they aren't automatically bad.  And yes, I also exercise and try to eat really healthy, and that all helps. 

My cholesterol is borderline high but my HDL is very high (which is good) so that kind of makes up for the total number being borderline. My total cholesterol used to read around 200 but my HDL has always been very high; my LDL is up some.  I recently went on a med for hypothyroidism and was interested to read that hypothyroidism can cause a high LDL so I'm waiting to see if being on the medication helps lower the LDL.

If any drug is causing you too much trouble to continue taking (like dorie-s & navygirl), then talk to your dr. about other options.   Best of luck....

Dav56789

My name is Elizabeth from Long Island, NY and have been on Aristrozole for breast cancer for one and a half years now. My Blood pressure was always normal at the doctor's office, I mean any doctor's office before taking aristrozole and now my blood pressure is about 161 over 91. My primary care doctor put me on B/P medication just last week. If that does not help, I may have to go off the anistrozole .

Edited by Mods to remove personally identifiable information.

dtad

Kariwhite...sorry you are having BP issues on Arimidex. Your doc should know that it os a SE of the drug! High blood pressure can be serious and should be monitored closely. IMO its irresponsible. The prescribing doc should know the side effects of the drugs! Good luck and keeps posted.