There are dozens of drugs that can be used to treat high blood pressure, and a number of them have been thought to be the cause of muscle weakness in a small number of patients. The drugs used to treat high blood pressure that have most often been thought to be the cause of muscle weakness are the diuretic drugs like hydrochlorothiazide, chlorthalidone and furosemide. These drugs all work at first to reduce the amount of water in the body. When you urinate out water, you loose some important minerals. Potassium is the most important. Some people will get muscle weakness when their blood levels of potassium get too low. It is easy for a physician to see if this is the cause by doing a simple blood test. This is one of the reasons that people taking diuretics are usually asked to drink orange juice or eat foods that are high in potassium every day.
Weakness in the arms and legs can have a number of other causes, some of them serious. Noticeable weakness in arms and legs deserves a visit to a physician to find out what the cause is.
