Anyone taking irbesartan(approvel) for high blood pressure?

have u noticed any problem keeping yr weight under control. since taking it i have found i have put on about a stone in weight i seem to have an insatiable appetite and find it hard to keep to a diet . im loathe to ask my doc to change the medication as its working at last with relatively little side effect - in the winter i suffered badly with cold hands and feet but now the weather is warmer i dont have that problem and the 24 hr bp monitor test said that its controlling my bp well. im tended to let sleeping dogs lie but if its this causing my weight gain then i have to think again as being overweight doenst help if u have bp problems.

tks for yr answers so far. maybe i should hv been more specific i have been taking it for about 6 months now 3 months at 300mg daily then it was reduced to 150mg daily 3 months ago. i also take a diuretic bendroflumethazide.

i do indeed have an appt booked with my gp but its not till end of next wk and i just wanted to find out first if anyone had found weight gain to be a side effect of this medication as it is not listed as one, or whether its some other factor such as my "age" as one male gp puts everything down to.(im 48 and female) i should mention that the weight gain is over about a year i used to go to the gym regularly and eat very healthily however as i say particulalry last few months ive noticed that i am always hungry even if i try to control what i eat and i have a carb craving also im finding it hard to motivate myself to exercise. tks for yr help

This depends. I should first state that weight gain is not a side effect reported for irbesartan or any of the other -sartan drugs (ARBs).

A stone is 14 pounds and if you gained that in 2 weeks it could be a fairly serious issue that you'd want to talk to you doctor about. It sounds like you've been on this ARB for at least 6 months now, though, so you're not going to just magically normalize "in a few weeks".

Weight gain can be caused by a lot of things. If you were on a powerful diuretic in the past (e.g. furosemide) to control you blood pressure, and the doctor took you off it, several pounds of that weight could just be water, as you've readjusted to the new medication.

At this point, you're probably on more than just one medication for your blood pressure, or you might have some other chronic disease state (like diabetes). Sometimes what we *think* is due to a change in just one drug is really a combination of effects from other drugs as well, even if you've been doing well on them in the past.

Without more information, I can't make any more detailed guesses. But it's certainly something to talk to your doctor about if you're concerned.

Added info:

Your observations are exactly what you need to bring to your doctor's attention. A 14lb weight gain over a year is about 1-2lbs a month and this is nothing to be greatly concerned about. Over a year, there can be a lot of small changes to your lifestyle that you may not notice. There are also a lot of hormonal changes that happen to a woman of your age that could be contributing to weight gain. Have you had your HbA1C checked for signs of early diabetes? That's yet another reason for unexplained weight gain, and isn't just limited to "at risk" populations.

Point being, there are many potential causes for gradual sustained weight gain. If your blood pressure, liver, kidneys, and blood glucose all test well, then your next step would be to talk to a nutritionist and see if perhaps some small changes can nudge you in the other direction. Good luck, and don't let your GP off the hook, that's what he's there for!

Typically symptoms like that will level off after a while. If you're new to the drug, give it a few more weeks. Especially if it's working wonders otherwise, you should heed your own advice on this one.

Edit: I was confused as to the conversion of a stone to pounds. I didn't realize it was 14 pounds. It depends over what period you put on that weight. You don't specify how long you've been on this new regimen.