meds
Well my doc put me on a couple more meds today. Nothing crazy blood pressure and such. So that got me thinking about how to get prescriptions filled while on the trail,
So how?
I dont take any meds, so no firsthand info.Originally Posted by squeezebox
I understand some get 3 mo supply sometimes thru insurance from mail order pharmacies, then do maildrops .
Or, bring prescription and plan.
Unless it's a controlled substance (i.e. opiate painkillers), most doctors can call in your prescription to any pharmacy you want. I commonly have them do that for me across state lines with no problems (granted, the states I'm talking about are right next to each other, but no problems so far).
Pretty much what I expected.
So a person finds a pharmacy,
gets the phone #
calls the Dr. office with the info
Dr office calls in prescription.
I'll check out if the 3 month thing is available to me.
Another option, for the blood pressure, is to try and get off of it! I say this with first hand experience. Over the last two years I have lost 125lbs and went from short day hikes to running my first half marathon road race and being able to hike 20mile days! I had VERY high blood pressure and by running and dropping weight I was taken off of the meds and now have a clean bill of health!
Canadian_Hiker
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I understand that some people can't help having high blood pressure. No matter how healthy they are and how well they eat it is still high. Guess I should of added that in my previous post!
Canadian_Hiker
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I have a similar medication issue since I travel pretty much constantly around the US. I switched to a national chain pharmacy (CVS) when they developed a computer system that could recall any Rx you had and fill it anywhere. By now I would think most national chains can do that for you, however I have stayed with CVS mostly because they seem to be everywhere.
You can also get 90 day and longer duration Rx fills, but you should talk to your druggist about how to do that with the insurance you have.
Another possibility
Oops!! It seems someone else had the same idea I had! If I could just delete this post, I would! So just read on.
Some national drug store chains (Walgreens, CVS, RiteAid) have prescriptions on record in their central computers. If you fill an initial Rx at your local branch, you MIGHT (note the verb) be able to fill that same Rx at any other branch along The Trail. Check to see if there is any overlap in local branches of a national chain, and that same chain along the AT; and double-check about getting refills along The Trail.
As for curing hypertension and cholesterol by diet and exercise, that's what my family doctor tried 25 years ago. I was 5' 9" and weighed 135 pounds, and could reach Level 6 on a stress treadmill test -- in other words, diet & exercise were NOT the problem -- but still had a terrible ratio of LDL to HDL. Mevacor{R} and Lipitor{R} fixed that problem without unpleasant side effects*.
Most likely, I inherited a bad ratio from my father, who died of a heart attack at age 47. When neither diet nor exercise could overcome this, modern medicine came to the rescue.
* Statins can cause trouble for some people, as they did for my mother. If your doctor puts you on statins, let her or him know of any problems!
Last edited by GoldenBear; 09-26-2015 at 08:40.
My doc said that at age 62 it would be unlikely to get off BP meds completely, even with diet and wt changes. We talked a lot about side effects of the meds.
At 68, I did get off my beta-blocker. It was causing my blood pressure to drop too low (as low as 80/40). (I had been on it since triple bypass heart surgery at 62.)
So -- yes you can.
Also ask your doctor if they can double the dose and can the pill be cut in half. I did this and was able to turn a 90 day supply into a 180 day supply.
I'm on lisinopril 40 mg. lighter duty than a Beta blocker. he expects me to be able to cut back
But very much so get down to a decent wt. and get my endurance up and resting pulse down.
Your doc can write non narcotic scripts for up to three months without an office visit in most cases. maybe just tell him you plan on hiking 20 miles a day for 5 months out on the woods and he will figure something out for you.
I bit the bullet and went to a cardiologist about a month ago because my BP is usually around 129/100 with a pulse rate of about 100. One doc put me on 10mg Lisinopril. After 1.5 months didn't do a damn thing. Went to my other doc who just put me on 50 mg of Metoprolol er. Seems to help a bit. Im still hiking about 20 miles a week and got my weight down to 258 from 294. HBP runs in my family. It seems like the more that I walk, the more I want to walk.
When I do the pct next year I will maybe ask my doc to double the dose and split them so I have enough. Hopefully I wont need to take it at all when I get down under 200. Its a real bummer tho.
I'll carry a 30-day supply of meds and med supplies along with backup scripts in my pack. A bounce box will carry another 30 to 60 days. My doc assures me he can get scripts confirmed if a problem would come up. I'm going to depend on AWOL's guide and my smart phone to locate pharmacies in the event that supplies run low or bounce box is lost or delayed. Last but not least is my SO who will ship me refills for the bounce box. That's my plan for the AT. We'll see how it works out.
I've been reading about the issue of high blood pressure for a while now and I really don't know what is the optimum blood pressure; however, I'd rather have it a little higher than the current standard of 120/80 versus taking any medication(s). In my experience the way to lower BP is not simple exercise, rather exercise that includes a good quantity of HIIT http://www.shape.com/fitness/workout...-training-hiit
Simple cardio doesn't do it.
Here's a couple reasons why I'd do everything possible to stay away from these drugs:
http://news.yahoo.com/blood-pressure...130018298.html
The study was slated to run for five years but was stopped after slightly more than three years because results were so dramatic. During that time, 65 people in the group aiming for a systolic pressure of 140 died and 100 developed heart failure. Of those trying to get down to a systolic of 120, only 37 died and 62 developed heart failure, researchers reported in the New England Journal of Medicine.Gary Gibbons, M.D., director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), SPRINT’s primary sponsor, says the findings will prompt new blood pressure guidelines and save lives.
But the benefits came with significant downsides. To get their blood pressure to 120, people in the study had to take three blood pressure medications on average. That led to almost double the instances of serious side effects, including some that required emergency care at a hospital, such as kidney failure, dangerously low blood pressure, and imbalances in potassium or sodium blood levels.
Also, many people find it difficult to take their blood pressure medication consistently, and an additional pill may increase that challenge, notes Michael Pignone, M.D., chief of internal medicine at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill. In fact, because of side effects, the need to cut costs, and/or other factors, up to one-half of people stop taking their high blood pressure medication within one year. “Putting somebody on more medications if they’re not consistently taking their current regimen is not a helpful strategy,” Pignone says.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/1...re-trial/?_r=0
Second, the potential benefits of lowering blood pressure must be weighed against harms.The study found potentially lifesaving benefits: There was one bad health event avoided, including heart attack or stroke, for about every 200 people treated per year, and the results suggested one death was avoided for every 300 people treated per year.
The benefit, however, was offset a bit by some increased risk. As expected, treating people with more medications to achieve a lower blood pressure caused some harm. People who were treated more intensively also experienced more fatal or life-threatening events, including very low blood pressure and fainting. A surprise of this study was that intensive treatment could also increase the risk of kidney failure. Over the 3.3 years of follow-up, for every 100 people treated to achieve the lower blood pressure, one more person suffered life-threatening low blood pressure, one more fainted and two more had severe kidney problems.
The study opens a new option for treatment, but it is not a slam dunk that everyone who fits the eligibility criteria of the study ought to be treated. It is a choice that is worthy of thought and reflection.
Baby Aspirin and hiking worked for me. I hadn't had a physical since I turned 49, so four years or so. Had a health screening at work and my blood pressure was 160/110, which is fairly high for me. Scheduled a physical with my doc and blood pressure was 140/100, better, but still kinda high. Started taking baby aspirin and doing HIIT a little more religiously as well as scheduling longer hikes every weekend. Lost 15 pounds and followup was down to 110/80 and resting pulse rate was 54. Good enough.
Most doctors will give you up to three months of a med unless it's opioid/benzo if you ask.
My interval training goes back 35 years to my bicycle racing days. I would sprint for a block and then rest and coast a block. I'ld try for 1/2 to 1 hr. Sprinting against another person is always more fun. But to do intervals you must have a good solid endurance base first and foremost.
Also keep a training log. Get a watch or clock with a second hand by your bed. When you wake up and are still lying down take your resting pulse. record it. Do your bathroom duties then weigh yourself. record that. If your wt. is down and your HR up, your stressed and need to take a recovery day. Write something down about how you feel, tired, hungry, thirsty, feel a cold coming on, etc. Write down how far, and how long you trained that day. A bit about the terrain and weather, food. Add anything else that seems worth mentioning.
Train well!! Train smart!!
I sprint against vehicles at the stop lights; I see how long it takes them to catch up with me once the light turns green. It gets so addicting that I've done over 20 hard sprints during a ride, that goes way beyond simple interval training, but it does make you a much better rider.
I don't pay much attention to my weight, but I average between 210-215lbs, but my resting HR is usually under 50, depending on how rested I am (from training) when I take it; I just happened to take it this morning since my run yesterday was kind of difficult -- it was fluctuating between 45 and 50, ended up with an average of 49. So I figured I didn't train hard enough so I went and did some Yasso 800 repeatshttp://www.runnersworld.com/race-training/yasso-800s
P.S. I agree that before any type of anaerobic exercise one should have a very solid aerobic base.
My first post, and it has to be about this
I've just started taking a med (Losartan) for high blood pressure. I have not worked out the proper dose yet. My doctor prescribed 100mg per day, but I never trust meds or docs :-), so I cut the pills into quarters and found that one or two quarters in 24 - 30 hours is enough to keep my bp in the target zone. I spent a few days taking & recording hourly readings of my bp. (Once, it went very low on just 1/2 pill. I think I would have ended up in the ER if I had taken the 100mg at once that my dr. prescribed.) My flip-flop hike begins in mid-May, so maybe by then I will have this sorted, but here is my question:
Is there a way (an app, a small device) to check bp on the trail? I'm thinking that as I lose weight and get more fit, my bp may decrease on its own. This is my hope and my goal. But how will I know that I need to decrease or stop the meds, short of passing out from too low bp?
Has anyone else had to deal with this issue?
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