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Blood Pressure Medicine Side Effects

Younger People With High Blood Pressure :

Amlodipine for High Blood Pressure | What are the Side Effects?
  • Start here. ACE Inhibitors, or angiotensin receptor blockers , are recommended as first line therapy because they lower blood pressure and the risk of stroke and heart disease. ACE inhibitors are cheap, well tolerated medications that end in -il . ARBs are very similar to ACE inhibitors but do not carry the dry cough side-effect that ACE inhibitors have. Common ARBs are losartan, irbesartan and valsartan.

  • Another option. Beta blockers are a second option for younger patients who cant take ACE inhibitors or ARBs, as some studies show that they dont provide the same protection against stroke risk. Commonly used beta blockers include atenolol, metoprolol and carvedilol.

  • Final notes. Studies show improved blood pressure in patients taking the above options rather than diuretics and calcium channel blockers.

Other Medicines For High Blood Pressure

Apart from the five main classes of medicines listed above, sometimes other medicines are used to lower blood pressure. For example:

Methyldopa or alpha-blockers are sometimes used if there are problems with the more commonly used medicines. Doxazosin is an alpha-blocker commonly added when blood pressure is high despite the treated person being on other medicines.

Spironolactone is another stronger water tablet sometimes used as an add-on option for blood pressure which is difficult to control. Spironolactone is not usually given alongside ACE inhibitors or ARBs because the combination can cause potassium levels in the body to become dangerously high. Regular blood tests to check for this are needed if you are on this medication or medicine combination.

What Are The Benefits And Risks Of Blood Pressure Medicines

The benefits of blood pressure medicines are clear: Blood pressure medicines can help you keep your blood pressure at healthy levels and therefore greatly reduce your risk of heart disease, heart attack, and stroke.

In general, the risks of taking blood pressure medicines are low. However, all medicines have risks. Talk with your doctor or health care professional about the risks of high blood pressure medicines.

Do not stop taking your current medicine without talking to your doctor or health care professional first.

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Dosage For Heart Failure

Adult dosage

  • Starting dosage: 5 mg taken by mouth once per day.
  • Maximum dosage: 40 mg taken once per day.

Child dosage

This medication hasnt been studied and shouldnt be used in children younger than 18 years for heart failure.

Senior dosage

There are no specific recommendations for senior dosing. Older adults may process drugs more slowly. A normal adult dose may cause levels of this drug to be higher than normal in your body. If youre a senior, you may need a lower dose or a different schedule.

Blood Pressure Medications That May Increase The Risk Of Ed

Drug

One reason erectile dysfunction becomes more common with age is that older men are more likely to be on medication, and ED is often a side effect of many common drugs. In fact, its been estimated that 25% of all ED is caused by medication.

The following drug classes have been linked to increased risk of ED. If you have concerns about medications you are taking, talk with your healthcare provider about other options available to you. You should never start or stop a blood pressure medication without medical supervision.

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About Heart And Vascular Institute

The UPMC Heart and Vascular Institute has long been a leader in cardiovascular care, with a rich history in clinical research and innovation. As one of the first heart transplant centers in the country and as the developer of one of the first heart-assist devices, UPMC has contributed to advancing the field of cardiovascular medicine. We strive to provide the most advanced, cutting-edge care for our patients, treating both common and complex conditions. We also offer services that seek to improve the health of our communities, including heart screenings, free clinics, and heart health education. Find an expert near you.

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High Blood Pressure In Older People

The target blood pressure reading for the over-80s is below 150/90 mmHg when it’s measured in the clinic or surgery, and below 145/85 mmHg for home readings.

While there are definite benefits from taking medicines to reduce blood pressure if you’re under the age of 80, it’s less clear it’s useful if you’re over 80.

It’s now thought that if you reach 80 while you’re taking medicine for high blood pressure, it’s fine to continue treatment provided it’s still helping you and is not causing side effects.

If you’re diagnosed with high blood pressure and you’re aged over 80, your doctor will also consider your other health risk factors when deciding whether to give you treatment for the high blood pressure.

Page last reviewed: 23 October 2019 Next review due: 23 October 2022

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A Trend Toward Lower Targets

Finding safe, effective ways to manage blood pressure has been a matter of growing interest. “Nowadays, there’s a trend to control blood pressure more aggressively than in the past,” says Dr. C. Michael Gibson, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and an interventional cardiologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Although the prior standard was a blood pressure target of less than 140/90 for most people, a goal of 120/80 appears to be even more effective for preventing heart attacks, strokes, and death from heart disease.

Types Of Blood Pressure Medicines

What are possible side effects of high blood pressure medications?

There are four main types of medicine to lower blood pressure.

  • . ACE inhibitors help to control hormones that play a role in blood pressure control. They help the blood vessels to relax and widen, lowering blood pressure. Most have names that end in pril, for example, enalapril, lisinopril, perindopril and Ramipril.
  • . These work in a similar way to ACE inhibitors, controlling the hormones that affect blood pressure, so you probably wont take ACE inhibitors and ARBs at the same time. Theyre usually used if ACE inhibitors are causing side effects. Most have names that end in artan, for example, candesartan, irbesartan, losartan, valsartan and olmesartan.
  • . These allow the artery walls to relax, making them wider. This allows more blood to pass through, lowering blood pressure. Most have names that end in pine , for example, amlodipine, felodipine and nifedipine.
  • . These are sometimes known as water pills because they remove excess fluid from the body, including from the blood. This means there is less pressure on the blood vessel walls. Most have names that end in ide, for example, indapamide and bendroflumethiazide.

Sometimes these medications wont be suitable, for example if youre pregnant or breastfeeding, if you have certain other health problems, or youre taking other medications which could react with them.

Alternatively, you might need to take another type of medication as well to lower your blood pressure enough.

The other medications available include:

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Will You Ever Be Able To Stop Taking Your Medication

As there is no cure for high blood pressure, most people will take meds for life. However, others may be able to stop or reduce the dosage if they successfully lower their blood pressure through lifestyle changes.

Although other lifestyle factors also matter, one common contributory factor in reducing high blood pressure is weight loss. As obesity has a major negative impact on blood pressure, reaching a healthy weight might be enough to lower your blood pressure to the recommended range. It is important to note that these lifestyle changes need to be maintained for life to keep your blood pressure under control.

Other positive lifestyle measures, including smoking cessation and making dietary changes, also play a role in normalizing your blood pressure.

In some cases, doctors may stop blood pressure medication in older and extremely frail individuals, especially those in nursing homes. This is because the risk-benefit ratio can change, i.e., the potential side effects of the drugs become more dangerous than the risk that hypertension imposes. Somebody who is extremely frail is at a higher risk of falls. Blood pressure-lowering medications can lead to postural hypotension and dizziness, increasing their risk of falls.

Secondary hypertension is potentially curable depending on the cause. However, this is not always the case.

What Are The Best Blood Pressure Medications With Few Or No Side Effects

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How Do Blood Pressure Medicines Work

Blood pressure medicines can work several different ways. Blood pressure medicines can keep blood pressure at a healthy level by1:

  • Causing your body to get rid of water, which decreases the amount of water and salt in your body to a healthy level
  • Relaxing your blood vessels
  • Making your heart beat with less force
  • Blocking nerve activity that can restrict your blood vessels

Talk with your health care team about the best type of treatment for you. You may need to take more than one type of medicine to control your blood pressure. You can also talk to your health care team about how long it should take your blood pressure medicine to work.

It is important to take your blood pressure medicine exactly as your doctor tells you to. Do not stop taking your current medicine without talking to your doctor or pharmacist first. Stopping your blood pressure medicine without first talking to your health care team could lead to serious health consequences.

What Is High Blood Pressure

High Blood Pressure Medication Side Effects Joint Pain

When your heart beats, it pushes blood out into your blood vessels. Your blood pressure is the amount of force that your blood exerts on your blood vessels.

If you have high blood pressure, your blood pushes against your blood vessels with too much force. Over time, this can lead to serious health problems like heart disease and stroke.

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Combination Antihypertensive Drugs: Recommendations For Use

NEIL S. SKOLNIK, M.D., JONATHAN D. BECK, M.D., MATHEW CLARK, M.D., Abington Memorial Hospital, Jenkintown, Pennsylvania

Am Fam Physician. 2000 May 15 61:3049-3056.

The recommendation for first-line therapy for hypertension remains a beta blocker or diuretic given in a low dosage. A target blood pressure of less than 140/90 mm Hg is achieved in about 50 percent of patients treated with monotherapy two or more agents from different pharmacologic classes are often needed to achieve adequate blood pressure control. Single-dose combination antihypertension therapy is an important option that combines efficacy of blood pressure reduction and a low side effect profile with convenient once-daily dosing to enhance compliance. Combination antihypertensives include combined agents from the following pharmacologic classes: diuretics and potassium-sparing diuretics, beta blockers and diuretics, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and diuretics, angiotensin-II antagonists and diuretics, and calcium channel blockers and ACE inhibitors.

Combination Drugs for the Treatment of Hypertension

ACE = angiotensin-converting enzyme.

*Estimated cost to the pharmacist based on average wholesale prices for 30 days of therapy at lowest given dosage in Red book. Montvale, N.J.: Medical Economics Data, 1999. Cost to the patient will be higher, depending on prescription filling fee.

Adapted from Drugs for hypertension. Med Lett Drugs Ther 1999 41:238.

Depression Rates In People Taking Different Blood Pressure Drugs

To see if commonly prescribed blood pressure drugs might influence a persons risk of developing depression, Danish researchers scrutinized a decades worth of data from their national health registry. Their findings, summarized below, were published in the September 2020 issue of Hypertension.

Who: All 5.4 million people living in Denmark in 2005, except for those diagnosed with depression or prescribed an antidepressant medication.

When: Researchers tracked the participants health from 2005 to 2015.

What: Just over 3.7 million people received a prescription for a blood pressure drug during the 10-year study period. Researchers focused on 41 drugs from four different classes of blood pressure drugs. Diuretics were the most commonly prescribed, followed by ACE inhibitors and ARBs, calcium-channel blockers, and beta blockers.

How: In people taking the different medications, researchers assessed the rate of depression, which was determined by a diagnosis by a clinician or use of antidepressants.

Key findings: None of the diuretics appeared to affect depression risk. In each of the other drug classes, at least two drugs were linked with a lower risk of depression: enalapril , ramipril , amlodipine , verapamil , propranolol , atenolol , bisoprolol , and carvedilol .

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Are Blood Pressure Medications Right For You

When youre first diagnosed with high blood pressure you might not need to take medications. Your doctor or nurse might suggest you make healthy changes to your lifestyle first, which could be enough to lower your blood pressure to a healthy level, but if thats not enough on its own, they may suggest you take medications as well.

The role of blood pressure medicines is to lower your risk of heart disease, stroke, and other health problems. So, whether you would benefit from them depends not only on your blood pressure, but on your overall health and risk of disease. Your doctor will consider a number of things, including:

  • your age, ethnicity, family history and lifestyle
  • any which raise your risk of heart attack or stroke, such as high cholesterol, being overweight, diabetes, kidney problems and diseases of the blood vessels such as coronary heart disease
  • if members of your family have high blood pressure, strokes or heart attacks, or have done in the past
  • any other illnesses you may have and medications youre taking, and any side effects

How high does your blood pressure need to be before starting medications?Your doctor will consider your when deciding whether to prescribe medications.

Your doctor will want to bring your blood pressure down to a target level, for example around 140/90mmHg.

Side Effects Not Requiring Immediate Medical Attention

Losartan for High Blood Pressure- What Are the Side Effects & Risks to Know

Some side effects of metoprolol may occur that usually do not need medical attention. These side effects may go away during treatment as your body adjusts to the medicine. Also, your health care professional may be able to tell you about ways to prevent or reduce some of these side effects.

Check with your health care professional if any of the following side effects continue or are bothersome or if you have any questions about them:

Less common

  • difficulty having a bowel movement
  • excess air or gas in the stomach or intestines
  • feeling of constant movement of self or surroundings
  • inability to have or keep an erection
  • loss in sexual ability, desire, drive, or performance
  • loss of interest or pleasure
  • pain in the chest below the breastbone
  • redness or other discoloration of the skin
  • sensation of spinning
  • increased sensitivity of the skin to sunlight

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What Happens If You Take Too Much Medication

If you’re not sure whether you took your medication or not, it’s possible to end up taking a double dose. The consequences depend on the specific medication you are taking. Here are some side effects of overdoses of common blood pressure medications.

Beta-blockers

ACE inhibitors

  • Extreme hypotension

Besides this, only very mild overdose symptoms are noted. If you overdose on your ACE inhibitors, you will be monitored. In severe cases, ACE inhibitor overdoses can cause your blood pressure to drop to levels that can cause fatality, and some people require hospitalization and IV fluids.

You should talk to your doctor about overdose symptoms on your medication and make sure that anyone you live with knows about them. Always keep your blood pressure medications out of the reach of children and pets.

Is Losartan Or Lisinopril More Effective

In a review of 61 studies comparing ARBs to ACE inhibitors , both categories of drugs were found to have similar long-term effects on blood pressure. The authors also concluded that both classes of drugs have an equivalent effect on death, cardiovascular events, major adverse events, quality of life, and risk factors such as lipid levels, diabetes mellitus, and left ventricular mass and function.

In a small study of patients with kidney disease, losartan and lisinopril had similar effects on kidney function and blood pressure.

The most effective medication for you should be determined by your doctor, who can look at the full picture of your medical condition, history, and other medications you are taking.

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Too High: Side Effects Hamper Many Blood Pressure Medications

Its a wonder anyone takes their blood pressure medications when you look at the required package inserts that list all of a medications possible adverse effects: headache, diarrhea, hair loss, rash, itching, cough, weakness, dizziness and more the lists are long and intimidating.

Side effects are common with these medications, although they dont happen with everyone and are usually not severe. But even minor side effects can reduce a patient’s motivation to take their medications consistently. The drugs are effective at preventing heart attacks and stroke, so its important that patients take them as prescribed.

Lets find out more about Margarets experience with side effects from her drugs :

Margarets a 53-year-old with high blood pressure and was first treated with lisinopril seven years ago. This medication worked well at first, but caused an annoying dry cough. When her lisinopril was no longer adequate to control her blood pressure, her doctors started a second drug, amlodipine. She noticed occasional swelling in her feet and ankles, especially after prolonged standing at work. Both drugs reduced her interest in sex.

Some side effects occur with many medications for hypertension, while others are specific to different classes of high blood pressure drugs. Some of the most frequent side effects include:

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