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Overview
Cardizem CD belongs to a class of medicines called calcium channel blockers.
Because of their safety and effectiveness, these drugs have helped revolutionize
the treatment of angina and high blood pressure.
Cardizem CD is
prescribed to treat high blood pressure alone or in combination with other blood
pressure pills. It is also helpful for certain forms of angina.
Other
brand names for diltiazem include Cardizem SR, Dilacor XR and Tiazac.
Side Effects and Interactions
Cardizem CD is usually well tolerated with few
side effects, but some people react to this drug with fluid retention, leading
to swelling of the legs, feet or hands.
Headache, dizziness, loss of
strength, slowed heart rate, heart problems or flushing may also occur.
Other side effects include nausea, rash, constipation, increased blood
sugar, sexual difficulties and depression.
The skin may be especially
sensitive to sunburn, and precautions should be taken to avoid ultraviolet
exposure. Report any symptoms or suspected side effects to your physician
promptly.
Cardizem CD can interact with a number of other drugs,
including several that are used to treat high blood pressure or heart
conditions, the anticonvulsant Tegretol,
the ulcer medicine Tagamet,
lithium and the transplant drug Sandimmune.
The herb St. John's wort might speed elimination of diltiazem from the body, which could
reduce its effectiveness.
Check with your doctor and pharmacist to make
sure Cardizem CD is safe in combination with any other drugs or herbs you
take.
Special Precautions
People with liver or kidney disease should take Cardizem CD under close medical supervision and monitoring.
Some people may feel dizzy if they sit or stand up suddenly. Low blood pressure or a recent heart attack also signal serious problems.
Taking the Medicine
Cardizem CD may be taken with or without meals, once a day.
Do not stop taking Cardizem
CD suddenly, as this could lead to complications. Your doctor will tell you how to taper off
gradually if you no longer need this medication.
Did this drug work? Average rating: 2.7/5 (13 votes)
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My doctor has prescribed 8 different bp meds including Benicar, Micardis, Tarka, Coreg, Bystolic, Toprol, Dynacirc, & Cartia. The side effects were so debilitating that I was unable to tolerate them for any length of time. Does anyone have advice?
WOW.... I heard that if you get more than 4 meds going you are going to have side effects. I too am a little sensitive to certain med. I can't take any beta blockers (for arrhythmia) they affect my lungs and breathing.Try low salt diet and walking or rebounding (mini-trampoline) whatever, get moving so you can come off most of these meds!!
Ask your doctor if you can take a cardioselective beta blocker. They do exist and won't affect your lungs. As far as bp med, there are tons of them. Keep trying different combos until one works for you.
I am an insulin diabetic... started on cardizem 4 wks ago... my blood sugar has increased to the point that I have doubled the amt. of insulin and still having trouble controlling it.
I have really noticed an increase in my blood sugar as well on Cardizam. We were thinking it was the fluid pill that was added in conjunction with the BP med. Or, the fact that I switched from Lantus to Levemir, but I got off the fluid pill and sugar has continued to increase. I've reacted to several blood pressure meds and we are really having a hard time finding an effective one with no reactions. We'll keep working on it, I'm sure. Good luck with your sugar issues.
After several pretty high blood pressure readings, my primary care doctor insisted I take blood pressure medication. We started with hydrochlorothiazide which gave me severe foot and leg cramps which disturbed my sleep. Next she tried me on a calcium channel blocker, amlodipine, which gave me intense hot flashes right away. The second calcium channel blocker, diltiazem, gave me intense hot flashes after about 5 days.
Within a week I was getting no sleep at all. After 8 days I stopped the diltiazem, and the number of hot flashes are slowly diminishing. My primary care doctor says the next step is a beta blocker which she guarantees will have sexual side effects. From everything I have read they also just about guarantee fatigue and depression which I already have on account of taking Arimidex, an aromatase inhibitor, for metastatic breast cancer.
I have looked at all the classes of blood pressure meds, and all of them have unacceptable side effects. I am pretty fed up with prescription medications. Since my blood pressure seems to be staying at an acceptable level, I'm going to treat myself with diet, exercise and garlic.
After taking diltiazem for four years, I suddenly started getting very intense hot flashes around the clock. I tried Remifemin which worked for about a month when the hot flashes returned at full force. I finally realized my hot flashes were fairly regular every 2 hours or so with a feeling of a major adrenaline release just prior to me heating up to the boiling point.
After doing some research, I decided to try stopping the time-released drug, diltiazem. I had an immediate reduction in hot flashes with a full stop after about a week and a half, once the drug was out of my system. Constipation is gone, skin discoloration is fading, depression has lifted, blood sugar sensitivity has decreased and I'm finally able to lose weight gained during this four-year period. I was blaming these side effects on quitting smoking three years ago, but obviously they were actually caused by the diltiazem.
One year ago I had a fast heart beat - 220 beats per minute. Went to emergency room and doctor said I had AVNRT and he said that he could fix it with ablation procedure and I agreed. All of my other tests were normal blood work, cholesterol, no blockage, etc. After that my heart rate went back to normal - "Hooray!" The doctor came into my room the next day after an EKG and pointed at me and said "You're cured!" Thanks, Doc, I said with exclamation, and went home.
Well, 14 days later my SVT's came back - 220 beats per minute. I went back to the E.R. They stopped my heart twice with drugs and it didn't work so they shocked me, twice. That also didn't work so they gave me a Diltiazem injection and that worked to slow my heart rate. But my heart rate was irregular and they sent me home with a prescription of Diltiazem, 240 mg. and a Halter monitor, and an appointment in 3 weeks with another doctor. As I was taking my medication, it made me sick in my stomach.
I made my appointment and the doctor entered the room and said, Hello, what can I do for you? I replied I had an ablation that did not work and this was a follow up on medication and Halter monitor results. This was about 5 weeks post-ablation. So he opened my file and started reading it while I sat there. He said ok, I see. So he hooked me up and told me that I had an irregular heartbeat and told me to go to the E.R., so I did. In the E.R., my cardiologist came in and asked "What are you doing here?" So I told him. He increased my medication to 360 mg. I told him the medication made me sick to my stomach and he said o.k. and sent me home. He ordered an event monitor but none were available, and advised to pick one up at a later date and approximately 6 weeks later one was available.
But in the meantime, my heart rate returned to normal in about 2 weeks. I went to get the monitor and the nurse told me to push the button when I had an event. I explained that I did not have any events in a while, and that my heart rhythm was normal for about 4 weeks, and that they should use the monitor for someone that needed it and she did. After that it was 6 weeks until I went back to see the cardiologist and told him that I believed my ablation finally worked because my heart rate was back to normal, no irregular heart beat, and that I wanted to reduce my medication to see.
The same doctor that told me that I was cured looked at me and said, your ablation did NOT work, it's the medication! I said the medication makes me feel sick to my stomach. He asked me if I had heard of that saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" - take your meds and come back to see me next year, which was over 6 months later. So like a good patient, I took my meds, 360 mg. for three months, and they still made me sick with no irregular heartbeat.
So I decided if the doctor wouldn't, I would. So I started tapering off my meds from 360 to 300 to 250 to 200 to 150 and now to 100 mg. I was wondering if I should stop altogether. I have read a lot of articles on ablation therapy and most said that it can take about a year for the full effects of ablation to work in some people and others told of the effects of liver and kidney damage from the medication that I am taking. Does anyone know if I should change my doctor or get off the
medication altogether???
Now my blood pressure is a little high (always normal before ablation) and I was wondering if it is because my body is used to the high blood pressure medication they had me on and if that was the cause of my blood pressure being high from my body reacting negatively as withdrawal symptoms from tapering off this medication and does my body just need time to adjust? By the way I'm a 60 year old man .