I have high blood pressure. I was diagnosed with hypertension/high blood pressure in 1987, while I was in Navy boot camp. I’ve been taking medication in some form or another most every day for over 20 years to control my high blood pressure.
Currently, I’m prescribed Atenolol/Chlorthalidone in two 50-25MG tablets each morning, meaning I require 100MG of Atenolol and 50MG of Chlorthalidoneto keep my blood pressure within normal limits. Each of these tablets, being consider “generics” cost $0.13 each.
One thing this medication does is dramatically cause the levels of potassium in my blood to plummet. Potassium is needed to keep up energy, something I’m in dire need of these days, so my doctor has also prescribed I take 40MEQ (or 4 capsules) of potassium supplements each day to replace the potassium Atenolol/Chlorthalidone robs from my bloodstream.
Each of these 10MEQ capsules cost $1.00. So, each day costs me $4.25 just to keep my blood vessals from bursting and preventing a stroke.
Put another way: $0.26/day to make my heart behave, $4.00/day (or over 15 times more) to replace the naturally occurring element in my blood that the $0.26/day drug steals from it!
Put another way: The medicine I need to keep me alive costs me $8/month, the supplement the medicine I need to keep my alive requires costs me $120/month!
This upsets me.
Better living through chemistry, eh? The unfortunate things about drugs that keep us alive is that we live to work in order to pay for them. Sorry to hear about this mess — that’s a big jump in monthly costs.
Would a bunch of bananas cost as much as the supplements? Would bananas work for you?
Just wondering.
-Mike
I’d need massive amounts of bananas… MASSIVE amounts!