Can I Take a Kudzu Supplement With Lisinopril?

Checking on an herb before adding it to a blood pressure medicine is exactly the right instinct, so thanks for reaching out.

Kudzu root has no well-documented interaction with lisinopril, but I wouldn't call the pairing completely neutral. Kudzu may lower blood pressure a little on its own, which could add to what your lisinopril already does.

Why Kudzu Could Nudge Your Blood Pressure Lower

Kudzu (Pueraria lobata, called ge gen in traditional Chinese medicine) is a root rich in isoflavones, plant compounds that include puerarin, daidzein, and daidzin. Puerarin in particular has been studied in China, often as an injectable medicine rather than a capsule, and it appears to relax blood vessels and bring pressure down modestly.

Lisinopril is an ACE inhibitor, meaning it blocks the enzyme that makes angiotensin II, a hormone that tightens blood vessels. Two agents widening vessels through different doors can stack, even when each one is mild.

For most people on a 10 mg dose whose readings sit in a comfortable range, an herbal effect this small probably wouldn't be felt.

The picture changes if your pressure already runs low, if you also take a water pill, or if you're older or get dehydrated easily.

In those situations, extra lowering tends to show up as lightheadedness when you stand up, and the lisinopril label itself warns that the drug can cause symptomatic drops in pressure. Kudzu wouldn't cause that by itself at supplement doses, but it could make an existing tendency a bit more noticeable.

Other Ways Kudzu Could Matter Alongside Your Medicines

One reassuring point is how lisinopril leaves the body. It isn't broken down by liver enzymes, and it exits unchanged through the kidneys, so the usual herb worry (an extract speeding up or slowing down the liver's processing of a drug) isn't expected to change your lisinopril levels.

Kudzu does have a few other properties worth knowing about, though.

It may lower blood sugar somewhat, which matters more if you also take diabetes medicine, since lisinopril can add to glucose lowering as well. Its isoflavones have weak estrogen-like activity, a consideration for anyone with a hormone-sensitive condition or on a drug like tamoxifen. Kudzu may also make platelets slightly less sticky, and there have been scattered reports of liver injury with kudzu-containing products, so I'd steer clear of it with any history of liver trouble.

Animal data suggest it can slow the clearance of methotrexate, and I wouldn't use it during pregnancy, where lisinopril itself is off the table anyway.

Final Words

Taken together, kudzu and lisinopril aren't a combination with a known serious problem, but the possibility of a little extra blood pressure lowering is real enough that I'd want your readings watched for a while.

Loop in your doctor before starting if your pressure already runs low, you take a diuretic or diabetes medicine, or you have any liver or hormone-sensitive condition.