Re: Blood pressure

[Anonymous]

TDFAITHEART For my ADD I take Adderall (generic=amphetamine salt combo) which is a stimulant. I also take 3 different blood pressure reducing meds and 1 cholesterol lowering med daily. I’m 63. My cardiologist and my psychiatrist both have all my meds. in my charts and everything is balanced to work for me. This balancing act took a few (frustrating!) years of experimentation. My advice is:

1. Talk to the Dr. that Rx’ed the Staterra (which did NOT work for me!!!) and discuss the Stimulants interaction with the BP meds.

2. At the same time, see the Dr. who Rx’ed the BP lowering med. and discuss the same issue.

3. Find an ADD support group, like CHADD (parents of ADD children almost always have ADD too). Look on MeetUp.com for an ADD group nearby, join it and go religiously.

It’s important that each of your physicians have an accurate, up to date list of everything to take, both meds and supplements (like fish oil), vitamins, over the counter stuff, decongestant nose spray – everything; when you take each med, the dosage of each med, i.e.1 tab 25mg metoprolol at 6AM, 1 more at 6PM. All the stuff we swallow naturally turns into a complex chemical soup. Some seemingly harmless things, like washing down my Adderall with a big glass of orange juice and then drinking a few cups of coffee reduces the effectiveness of the Adderall from 100% down to 40%. So now I give the Adderall about an hour head start before swallowing anything with a lot of acid like OJ, coffee, a diet coke or a 500 mg chewable Vitamin C tablet (citric acid). This works for me.

So now my blood pressure’s fine, my cholesterol’s fine and I can stay awake long enough to try and figure out how to cope and use ADD to my advantage. Hope you can do the same.

Keep fine tuning until it all feels good and works well. Hope you post a response in a few months telling how you’re doing now.

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