Felodipine (Healthplend) is a vasoselective calcium antagonist for the treatment of hyper-tension and stable angina pectoris. The active substance in Healthplend, felodipine, is a dihydropyridine derivate. Felodipine exerts its effect by reducing peripheral vascular resistance, particularly in arterial resistance vessels.
Healthplend is indicated for the treatment of high blood pressure and can be used as monotherapy to control blood pressure in the majority of patients. Healthplend is usually prescribed to patients in whom treatment with other blood pressure medications (eg, diuretics or beta-blockers) has been shown to be ineffective or associated with unacceptable adverse effects.
Healthplend is compatible with other blood pressure medicines. Healthplend has been shown to have an additive blood pressure lowering effect when prescribed with other blood pressure medicines. Therefore, your doctor may prescribe Healthplend with other blood pressure medications (such as diuretics, beta-blockers or ACE inhibitors).
Felodipine (Healthplend) is used alone or with other medications to treat high blood pressure. Lowering high blood pressure helps prevent strokes, heart attacks, and kidneys problems.
Felodipine belongs to a class of drugs known as calcium channel blockers. It works by relaxing and widening the blood vessels, which helps blood flow more easily, which contributes to lowering blood pressure.
Felodipine is also used to prevent angina attacks, allowing angina patients to increase their exercise capacity and reduce the frequency of angina attacks. Healthplend should not be used to treat angina attack when it occurs. If chest pain occurs as a result of angina, use another class of medication (such as sublingual nitroglycerin) or as directed by your doctor.
How should I take Healthplend?
- Take Healthplend once a day, with or without food. It is recommended that you take your dose at the same time each day, such as after breakfast or dinner, or at bedtime.
- If you miss a dose, take it as soon as you remember. But do not take Healthplend if it has been more than 12 hours since you missed your last dose. Wait and take the next dose at your regular time.
- Other medicines: You can use nitroglycerin and Healthplend together. If you are taking nitroglycerin to treat angina, do not stop taking it while you are taking Healthplend.
- While you are taking Healthplend, do not stop taking your other prescribed medications, including any other blood pressure medications, without first talking to your doctor.
Healthplend – Frequently Asked Questions
What foods interact with Healthplend?
Alcohol can further lower your blood pressure and can increase some of the side effects of Felodipine. Grapefruit and grapefruit juice may also interact with Felodipine and lead to potentially serious side effects. Avoid the use of grapefruit products while taking Felodipine.
When do I stop using Healthplend?
If you have been using this medication regularly for several weeks, do not suddenly stop using it. Stopping suddenly may cause angina or high blood pressure. Consult your doctor for the best way to reduce the amount you are taking gradually before stopping completely.
How long does it take Healthplend to lower blood pressure?
It takes 8 hours for Felodipine (Healthplend) to reach its highest concentration in the blood, and about a week to reach the full effect of complete blood pressure control.
Is Healthplend taken every day?
Take Felodipine exactly as your doctor has told you, and follow the directions in the package leaflet provided with the medicine. If you are not sure of your dose, check with your doctor or pharmacist. It is usual to take Healthplend once daily. You can take your dose at any time of the day, but try to make sure it is around the same time each day.
What time of day should you take Healthplend?
Take Healthplend once a day, with or without food. It is preferable to take your dose at the same time each day, such as after breakfast or dinner, or at bedtime. Do not take more than one dose of Healthplend at a time and if you miss a dose, take it as soon as you remember it.
Does Healthplend cause weight gain?
Weight gain is a rare side effect of Healthplend (Felodipine) that occurs in less than 1 percent of people who take the medication. A low-salt & low-fat diet may help prevent weight gain.
Does Healthplend cause a cough?
Cough is listed as a side effect of Felodipine in the patient information leaflet but this is rare, occurring in less than 0.01% of patients. Coughing is more common when Felodipine is combined with other blood pressure medications (eg, ACE inhibitors).
Does Healthplend cause swelling in the feet or ankles?
Swelling of the feet and/or ankles can be a side effect of some blood pressure medications, especially calcium channel blockers (such as Healthplend). These medicines (including Healthplend) widen/relax the small blood vessels, and in some people, this can cause more fluid to leak from the blood vessels into the tissues, causing swelling in the ankle or foot.
Does Healthplend affect erection in men?
Yes, Healthplend can cause a decrease in sex drive, a decrease in the hardness of an erection and in some cases impotence, gynecomastia in men.
Healthplend rarely causes erectile dysfunction, but most patients with uncontrolled blood pressure (especially those who also have diabetes) are more likely to develop erectile dysfunction as part of a complication of high blood pressure or diabetes.
According to the manufacturers of drugs that contain Felodipine, and based on reports of patients’ experiences after using Healthplend , it is clear that in rare cases, Healthplend may cause impotence and breast enlargement in men (gynecomastia).
Is there an interaction between Healthplend and Viagra (sildenafil)?
There are no known drug interactions between Healthplend and sildenafil. And when they are taken together, each of the two drugs does not affect the other in any way.
Composition
- Felodipine 5 mg
- Pharmaceutical form: film coated extended release tablets
Therapeutic Indications
- Hypertension
- Prophylaxis of angina pectoris
Posology and method of administration
The extended-release tablet should be given once daily, preferably in the morning. The duration of effect is 24 hours. The tablet should be swallowed with water but must not be chewed or crushed.
The extended-release tablet may be taken on an empty stomach or together with a light meat that is low in fat and carbohydrates.
Hypertension
The dose should be adjusted individually. Treatment should be initiated with 5 mg once daily. The normal dosage is 5 mg once daily. If necessary, the dose may be further increased or another antihypertensive agent added to Healthplend.
For some patients, for example, elderly patients and patients with impaired liver function, 2.5 mg once daily may be sufficient.
Doses higher than 10 mg once daily are usually not needed.
Angina pectoris
The dose should be adjusted individually. Treatment should be initiated with 5 mg once daily and, if needed, increased to 10 mg once daily.
Healthplend may be combined with B-blockers.
Impaired renal function
Impaired renal function does not affect plasma concentrations of felodipine.
No dose adjustment is required. Healthplend should be used with caution in patients with severely impaired renal function .
Children
Experience from treatment of children with felodipine is limited.
Undesirable effects
The most common adverse reaction to Healthplend is mild to moderate ankle swelling, which is dose-related and caused by precapillary vasodilatation. Experience from clinical trials has shown that 2% of patients interrupted treatment due to ankle swelling.
Flushing, headache, palpitations, dizziness and fatigue may occur at the start of treatment or after a dose increase. These reactions are normally transient.
Occasional cases of confusion and sleep disturbances have been reported, but a connection with felodipine has not been established with certainty.
Cases of gingival enlargement have been reported in patients with pronounced gingivitis/periodontitis. The enlargement can be avoided or reversed by careful dental hygiene.
Hyperglycaemia is a class-related undesirable effect, but has only been reported in individual cases for felodipine.
Pregnant and nursing mothers
Felodipine should not be used during pregnancy unless the potential benefit outweighs the potential risk to the mother and fetus.
Felodipine should not be prescribed to nursing mothers.
Healthplend is an equivalent alternative to the Plendil brand. For more information, I advise you to read the patient information leaflet of Plendil.
Product reference code: C08CA02.
