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High Blood Pressure Drugs that Bring Pressure Down
If high blood pressure is identified early enough, when it is still in its very mildest stages, the first line of defense is an attempt to modify the risk factors associated with it. Of course, we can't do anything about our heredity, age, race, or sex; but we can lose weight, exercise more, stop smoking, and improve our eating habits.
We may even be able to alter our personality; your doctor can recommend programs intended to teach Type-A personalities (the hard-driven, success-oriented types who start blowing their horns before the traffic light has changed) how to become easy-going, Type-B personalities.
In most cases, the mainstay of treatment for hypertension is medication. It brings blood pressure down quickly and keeps it down. And although it doesn't cure the disease (if you haven't improved your diet and lifestyle, blood pressure almost always shoots back up when medication is discontinued), it does prevent the serious and even life-threatening complications that can result if high blood pressure is left untreated.
The first step is usually a prescription for one of five types of medication: a diuretic, a beta blocker, an ACE (angiotensin converting enzyme) inhibitor, an angiotensin II receptor antagonist, or a calcium channel blocker. If these drugs, either alone or in combination, fail to bring blood pressure under control, other classes of drugs may be prescribed.
These drugs usually make no difference in the way you feel, so it's easy to forget about them. Nevertheless, it's important to take them faithfully according to the prescribed schedule. If they are not taken on a regular basis, they won't do their hidden, but lifesaving job. Here's a closer look at the various categories that are generally prescribed.
Diuretics, such as furosemide (Lasix), chlorothiazide (Diuril), hydrochlorothiazide (Esidrix, HydroDIURIL), and spironolactone (Aldactone), make it difficult for the kidneys to retain water and salt, which are then filtered out into the urine. Increasing the amount of urine reduces the amount of fluid in the bloodstream, and hence the pressure on artery walls. It's like turning on a second faucet in your house and watching the water pressure drop in the first -- not a subtle mechanism, to be sure, but it works. Because some important chemicals may be washed out along with the water and salt, a doctor may prescribe supplements -- most commonly a potassium supplement -- to go with the diuretic.