Q. I had been taking lisinopril for many years to control my blood pressure. Then twice, two months apart, I got a tingling in my lips. It went away after a few minutes. I thought it was the tingling of a fever blister.<\/p>\n
A month later, my genitals became swollen. An ultrasound showed no problem. The swelling went down after three days. A month later, it happened again and then went away.<\/p>\n
Six months after the first onset, I got full-blown angioedema that affected my lips (fortunately not my tongue or throat). When I drove to the emergency room, the first question was \u201cDo you take lisinopril?\u201d I had no idea that this serious problem could manifest after so many years.<\/p>\n
A. Lisinopril is the most popular blood pressure medication in the U.S. It is an ACE inhibitor, and like other ACE inhibitors, it can occasionally cause angioedema. As you discovered, this swelling of the lips, tongue, throat or intestines can be life-threatening. Angioedema may include the genitals (Journal of Emergency Medicine, August 2012). <\/p>\n
To learn more about other options for treating high blood pressure, you may wish to read our \u201ceGuide to Blood Pressure Solutions.\u201d This online resource is located under the Health eGuides tab at www.PeoplesPharmacy.com.<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
In their column, Joe and Teresa Graedon answer letters from readers. Write to them in care of King Features, 628 Virginia Drive, Orlando, FL 32803, or email them via their website: www.PeoplesPharmacy.com. Their newest book is \u201cTop Screwups Doctors Make and How to Avoid Them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Q. I had been taking lisinopril for many years to control my blood pressure. Then twice, two months…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":173718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[49,48,84,377],"class_list":["post-433297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-medication"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}