High Blood Pressure Clinic Recommendations - Bangkok

[David48]

My Sister is visiting Thailand and wants to avail herself of a good Hypertension Clinic.

I know the one at Bumrungrad from their website ... but the high end price doesn't always equal high-end service ... but happy to go there if it's good value.

So I'm looking for other alternatives for her.

The weird thing is that she used to suffer from Low Blood Pressure.

Background.

• Female

• Late 50's

• Cuddly, but you wouldn't describe her as fat (seriously)

• High stress lifestyle (work and home life) ... and I can do naught to change that.

• Current Blood pressure is around 145/155 to 85/95

• Prescribed and taking currently take Coversyl 10 MG and Zandip 20MG (no idea about them)

• She says that she was prescribed a 3rd tablet but declined to take it. Instead of the 3rd tablet, she discovered some good things about 'garlic extract'.

• She reckons before taking it her systolic was quite often up around the 165/175

Sis isn't one to exaggerate, more likely the opposite. She was really hesitant to have any medical treatment here, but once I hooked her up with my dentist and she had an excellent experience, she's keen to venture a little further.

Obviously she has consulted her local GP at home, but has hit a brick wall there and is looking for answers as to why the hypertension as she doesn't like to take the medication for the rest of her life.

Looking for replies from members who have sought treatment here for that condition and were happy with both the experience and the cost.

Thanks in Advance.

.

[jrtmedic]

Hypertension is a condition which requires on going, long term, management.

In the early stages of treatment management needs to be active until such time as blood pressure is controlled.

The medication your sister is taking is aimed at controlling her blood pressure but your description of her blood pressure would suggest that her medication requires "fine tuning" (or changing)

It is unlikely that a definitive, rectifiable , cause will be found for your sisters hypertension and I presume her GP will have undertaken some blood tests to rule out issues such as diabetes and renal disease.

You and your sister may find the following link helpful

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Blood-pressure-(high)/Pages/Causes.aspx

Others here will be able to provide suggestions if you wish to pursue a medical consultation whilst your sister is on holiday.

It would seem your Sister does not enjoy a good professional relationship with her GP.

Has she thought about changing her GP?

It is important that she finds a medical practitioner at home whom she is comfortable with as she will (sorry) need life long medical supervision.

​Best wishes to you both.

[David48]

Thanks for that, the thoughts are warmly appreciated.

I have no control what Sis does in Australia (changing her GP), only what I can assist her with here in Thailand.

Anyone else with any experiences regarding HyperTension - High Blood Pressure being anaylsed or treated in a Clinic, preferably in Bangkok?

Cheers

[jrtmedic]

David

Sheryl ( the lead Moderator here) has an encyclopaedic knowledge of health care facilities in Thailand. Hopefully she will be along to give you some pointers.

For the vast majority of people suffering high blood pressure no "cause" is found (so called "essential hypertension")

If your sister is only here in Thailand for a short time I don't believe many physicians would wish to alter/add to her medication unless her blood pressure is dangerously high. The reasoning behind my belief is that any new/additional medication takes time to have an effect and on going monitoring is important.

As an Australian your sister could ask for a referral to a Consultant Physician or Cardiologist in her home town/city.

Best wishes

Edited August 1, 2013 by jrtmedic

[Sheryl]

Unless she is going to be here quite a while, I share jrttmedic's doubts about the utility of a consultation here. This is something that will take time to sort out, not something that a consultation or two can fix.

It will also take a good level of patient compliance which from what you say, may be the reason why her current medical regimen is not working...you mention that she was given a 3rd drug which she decided not to take.

If you are determined anyway to have her see someone, I suggest the following. She should be sure to bring with her a medical summary from Oz including drugs that have already been tried and didn't work and tests that were done at time of initial diagnosis. While most cases of hypertension are idiopathic (no identifiable cause) there are a few rare conditions that can underlie it that should be excluded when the condition is first diagnosed, probably already done in Oz. In addition, hypertension can cause problems in various organs e.g. heart, kidney, and the4se adverse effects need to be checked for. This too has presumably already been done in Oz. Failing to bring those records may lead to repeat and expensive testing that is not necessary.

http://www.bnhhospital.com/en/find_doctor/detail/182

[David48]

Really appreciated the above replies.

I will forward this information onto her .

As always, the advice and help here is fantastic.

.

[CaptHaddock]

Losing even a small amount of weight can reduce high blood pressure. It did for me. Losing more weight is better of course. Another step she should consider is to buy a machine to take her BP at home following the instructions carefully and log the measurement daily. One manufacturer of such devices is Omrom. They are not expensive.

Really appreciated the above replies.

I will forward this information onto her .

As always, the advice and help here is fantastic.

.

[AyG]

1. Monitoring at home is a good idea. For some people (and I'm one) blood pressure measurements taken in a hospital can be significantly higher than those done at home - so-called "white coat syndrome".

2. It's worrying that the OP's sister has gone against medical advice by refusing the prescribed 3rd medication and has chosen to use an unproven quack treatment, backed only by anecdotal evidence (garlic extract). Perhaps she could be persuaded to trust her doctor's advice and try the 3rd medicine before wasting time and money on another hospital which quite possibly could make exactly the same recommendation.

[Tolley]

1. Monitoring at home is a good idea. For some people (and I'm one) blood pressure measurements taken in a hospital can be significantly higher than those done at home - so-called "white coat syndrome".

2. It's worrying that the OP's sister has gone against medical advice by refusing the prescribed 3rd medication and has chosen to use an unproven quack treatment, backed only by anecdotal evidence (garlic extract). Perhaps she could be persuaded to trust her doctor's advice and try the 3rd medicine before wasting time and money on another hospital which quite possibly could make exactly the same recommendation.

There have been quite a few studies on garlic and lowering of blood pressure. This study is a meta analysis of 11 such studies.

http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2261/8/13

[AyG]

There have been quite a few studies on garlic and lowering of blood pressure. This study is a meta analysis of 11 such studies.

http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2261/8/13

There have, but they don't mean that some random garlic pill is a substitute for a standardised, carefully prepared and controlled medicine which has undergone rigorous testing and approval. There's no knowing what's in a garlic pill, or whether the contents of one pack are the same as the next; garlic being a natural product is going to be variable in active ingredients, varying with the season and from plant to plant. Metastudies may demonstrate the apparent effectiveness of a medicine across a large number of individuals (and in this case different garlic products), but they don't demonstrate any consistency in effectiveness across all patients/medicines.

[Tolley]

There have been quite a few studies on garlic and lowering of blood pressure. This study is a meta analysis of 11 such studies.

http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2261/8/13

There have, but they don't mean that some random garlic pill is a substitute for a standardised, carefully prepared and controlled medicine which has undergone rigorous testing and approval. There's no knowing what's in a garlic pill, or whether the contents of one pack are the same as the next; garlic being a natural product is going to be variable in active ingredients, varying with the season and from plant to plant. Metastudies may demonstrate the apparent effectiveness of a medicine across a large number of individuals (and in this case different garlic products), but they don't demonstrate any consistency in effectiveness across all patients/medicines.

Clearly your statement is wrong 'has chosen to use an unproven quack treatment, backed only by anecdotal evidence (garlic extract)' because there has been studies done and there is some evidence that garlic extracts does in fact lower blood pressure.

[Tolley]

There have been quite a few studies on garlic and lowering of blood pressure. This study is a meta analysis of 11 such studies.

http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2261/8/13

There have, but they don't mean that some random garlic pill is a substitute for a standardised, carefully prepared and controlled medicine which has undergone rigorous testing and approval. There's no knowing what's in a garlic pill, or whether the contents of one pack are the same as the next; garlic being a natural product is going to be variable in active ingredients, varying with the season and from plant to plant. Metastudies may demonstrate the apparent effectiveness of a medicine across a large number of individuals (and in this case different garlic products), but they don't demonstrate any consistency in effectiveness across all patients/medicines.

Further to that extracts are of course standardised but there are many products on the market and types of garlic extracts as well so effectiveness may vary according to brand type of extract dosage etc

Edited August 3, 2013 by Tolley

[AyG]

Further to that extracts are of course standardised

Standardisation means nothing when you don't know the active ingredient(s).