Pseudoephedrine is wonderfully effective, but beware of its side effects.
I used to take it regularly due to congestion related to seasonal allergies, but at a recent medical visit I discovered that my blood pressure had jumped from its usual 120/75 up to 150/105. (My doctor was also alarmed!) I no longer take pseudoephedrine.
I'm told that the effect on blood pressure is usually mild, but based on my experience I'd recommend blood pressure monitoring to anyone planning on using it, just in case (like me) they're one of the unlucky people who experiences a dramatic increase in blood pressure.
I'm not OP, but its elimination half life is about six hours, so you'd superficially expect OP's BP to drop in a curve with a half life of six hours after the last dose. It would be really easy to chart with one of those wrist BP monitors and an excel spreadsheet.
there was a study published february 2022 that showed that acetaminophen also increases blood pressure. I was pretty aware that both pseudoephedrine and ephedrine raised blood pressure slightly - but it's always good to see it mentioned online where other people may not have known.
In my case, I was taking ibuprofen+pseudoephedrine, so acetaminophen wasn't a confounding factor.
And yes, there's plenty of literature showing a slight average increase in bp -- but it seems that there's a wide variance, with some people having dramatically larger side effects.
I used to take it regularly due to congestion related to seasonal allergies, but at a recent medical visit I discovered that my blood pressure had jumped from its usual 120/75 up to 150/105. (My doctor was also alarmed!) I no longer take pseudoephedrine.
I'm told that the effect on blood pressure is usually mild, but based on my experience I'd recommend blood pressure monitoring to anyone planning on using it, just in case (like me) they're one of the unlucky people who experiences a dramatic increase in blood pressure.