Minipressis most commonly prescribed to treat high blood pressure.
It is an alpha blocker which means it prevents blood vessels from tightening and narrowing.
This process of tightening and narrowing is one of the ways the body creates and builds up blood pressure.
Lesstightening and narrowing = lower blood pressure.
Severe Congestive Heart Failure Minipress lowers blood pressure, without making the heart compensate by working harder.
Because of this, it is sometimes usedas part of the treatment strategy when a person with severe congestive heart failure is not responding to medication.
Raynaud's disease If your fingers, feet, nose or ears become completely white or blue when you step into the cold, or when you areupset, you probably have Raynaud's disease.
What happens is, the blood vessels under your skin tighten and become narrow.
So very little blood can move past.
Very little oxygen or heat can therefore reach the skin.
If severe, ulcers and gangrene could develop.
Minipress is sometimes prescribed to prevent those blood vessels from tightening.
For some people, it does the trick.
Enlarged prostate (BPH) When the prostate gland, found only in men, continues growing, two things happen.
First, the gland which wraps around part of the urethra, physically squashes it.
All that extra tissue simply has no where else to go.
Second, the muscle which forms the prostate gland contracts and relaxes as it's meant to.
But when the gland is enlarged, the muscle ends up squeezing the urethra when it contracts.
The urethra is the tube that carries urine from the bladder, down the penis and out of the body.
So you can understand why the main symptoms associated with BPH have to do with changes in passing urine.
Minipress relaxes the muscles of the prostate so urine can flow out of the bladder more easily.
This relieves many BPH symptoms.
It does not, however, reverse BPH.
It does not make an enlarged prostate shrink.
When you stop taking Minipress, your symptoms return.
Nightmares and sleep problems related to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
If you've been through a terrifying event such as assault, rape, earthquake, warfare, and your sleep is disturbed with nightmares and other problems, Minipress could help! Who would have thought! Of course it doesn't help everyone, but for a lot of people, it has literally saved their sanity.
Minipress - side effects? As always, when taking prescribed medicines, you should watch carefully for all effects you experience, and discuss them all with your doctor.
Here are a couple you may not be prepared for:
It is an alpha blocker which means it prevents blood vessels from tightening and narrowing.
This process of tightening and narrowing is one of the ways the body creates and builds up blood pressure.
Lesstightening and narrowing = lower blood pressure.
Severe Congestive Heart Failure Minipress lowers blood pressure, without making the heart compensate by working harder.
Because of this, it is sometimes usedas part of the treatment strategy when a person with severe congestive heart failure is not responding to medication.
Raynaud's disease If your fingers, feet, nose or ears become completely white or blue when you step into the cold, or when you areupset, you probably have Raynaud's disease.
What happens is, the blood vessels under your skin tighten and become narrow.
So very little blood can move past.
Very little oxygen or heat can therefore reach the skin.
If severe, ulcers and gangrene could develop.
Minipress is sometimes prescribed to prevent those blood vessels from tightening.
For some people, it does the trick.
Enlarged prostate (BPH) When the prostate gland, found only in men, continues growing, two things happen.
First, the gland which wraps around part of the urethra, physically squashes it.
All that extra tissue simply has no where else to go.
Second, the muscle which forms the prostate gland contracts and relaxes as it's meant to.
But when the gland is enlarged, the muscle ends up squeezing the urethra when it contracts.
The urethra is the tube that carries urine from the bladder, down the penis and out of the body.
So you can understand why the main symptoms associated with BPH have to do with changes in passing urine.
Minipress relaxes the muscles of the prostate so urine can flow out of the bladder more easily.
This relieves many BPH symptoms.
It does not, however, reverse BPH.
It does not make an enlarged prostate shrink.
When you stop taking Minipress, your symptoms return.
Nightmares and sleep problems related to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
If you've been through a terrifying event such as assault, rape, earthquake, warfare, and your sleep is disturbed with nightmares and other problems, Minipress could help! Who would have thought! Of course it doesn't help everyone, but for a lot of people, it has literally saved their sanity.
Minipress - side effects? As always, when taking prescribed medicines, you should watch carefully for all effects you experience, and discuss them all with your doctor.
Here are a couple you may not be prepared for:
- If you have developed the tendency to lose urine unintentionally, you might find that Minipress makes this worse.
Using an ultra slim liner in your underwear is discrete and will help keep you fresh.
It's also a good idea to get in the habit of emptying your bladder a little more frequently and thoroughly. - Very dry mouth.
Which may work for you a bit by forcibly reminding you to drink more water.
The dryness comes because you have less saliva.
And with that can come bad breathe and more infections in your mouth.
Sipping water frequently will help.
Odd as it sounds, even with a dry mouth, you might sometimes find you don't actually want to drink anything.
Sucking ice may help.
Some find it easier and more convenient to chew gum.
If you wish to chew gum, can I suggest sugar-free gum? And here's another idea.
Grow or buy some wheatgrass and chew/ suck a few fronds at a time.
It will help the dryness and give you little shots of health-boosting goodness. - Intense light headedness when getting up.
It can be quite disconcerting to have had your usual dental check up, get up - as always mindful of the next patient waiting, and suddenly find your world spinning.
Unfortunately, because of this medicine's affect on blood pressure, this is likely to continue happening while you're taking it.
If you can live with it, simply taking care whenever you get up, should lessen the dizziness.