If you want to control your hypertension you may have to follow these important steps
* Diet Modification
* Regular Exercise
* Stop smoking
* Drug Treatment
However majority of hypertensive patients do need drug therapy to control BP.
There is no doubt that quitting smoking, diet modification and doing regular exercise are all useful to improve your blood pressure, but drug therapy is still very significant. The most popular blood pressure medications used all over the World are:
* Angiotensin Receptor Blockers
* ACE Inhibitors
* Diuretics
* Beta Blockers
* Calcium Channel Blockers
Which Drug is the Best?
Many hypertensive patients are taking medicine for controlling hypertension. They may be taking a single pill or combination therapy at different times. As there are lot of combination therapies and variety of drugs available to control BP so newly diagnosed hypertensive patients often think if there is special hypertensive medicine that is “the best.” The Answer: Maybe.
There are Special Circumstances
According to various studies, ACE Inhibitors and Angiotensin Receptor Blockers are a good choice for diabetic, kidney and heart failure patients. Aside from their ability to lower BP these drugs have very good effect on protecting kidney function. You should keep in mind that ultimate aim is to control BP. If you dont have required effect with these medicines then you may change these or use additional drugs. Similarly calcium channel blockers are more usefull for elderly patients as they have rigid and thickened blood vessels.
No Clear Recommendation for Most Patients
Using a particular class of high BP medicine may give benefit for some class of patients, When treating blood pressure, there is no recommendation that which medicine is best and what is first drug to be used. There are various studies including the CAPPP, STOP-Hypertension-2, NORDIL, UKPDS, and INSIGHT trials, when comparing the various types of high blood pressure medicines, found little overall difference in outcome.
Lower risk of cardiovascular disease and cardiovascular-related death and mortality with the use of calcium channel blockers as compared to beta blockers was declared in a famous trial, the ASCOT trial. However, on reexamination of this study, it was found that the apparent lower risk was likely due to an overall lower blood pressure in that study’s sample patients.
So Best Drug is the One that really Works!
In the end I will say that the best drug is that which has minimum side effects and is able to control your BP. There are many studies and reports about benefits and side effects of various classes of medicines for hypertension, but keep in mind that high BP is dangerous, and that lowering blood pressure saves lives. This should be the basic goal.
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