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Blood Pressure Medications
Medications prescribed for controlling hypertension are known as anti-hypertensives. Some of the different types of these medicines are calcium channel blockers, and diuretics. Another type of medicine known as nervous system inhibitors may also, occasionally be used.
Blood pressure control medicine is widely used today. In fact, though hypertension is most prevalent in older people, the number of young adults who take it has increased greatly over the past several years. This is partly due to the increase in obesity over the years but also, it is due to the fact that many of the newer blood pressure medicines are more easily tolerated than their earlier counterparts and doctors are more comfortable prescribing them as a preventative medication.
As an aside, more doctors are prescribing cholesterol-lowering drugs as a preventative measure, as well. In either case, some lifestyle changes by the patients are necessary or these medications will go for naught.
Types and Dosages
Different blood pressure medications have different effects on different people. As complicated as that sounds, it is a complicated matter. Medicine prescribed for hypertension frequently needs to be adjusted in both type and dosage in order to find out what works best for each patient. As you might think, when a patient becomes older his blood pressure tends to rise, therefore it is common to see that as people with hypertension get older their dosage may need to be increased.
Other Factors
Usually, before a medication is prescribed, the doctor will want to find out if the patient's blood pressure will respond positively to either weight loss or a reduction in his or her intake of salt. Because of the cost of medication, the doctor, most times will wait and won't prescribe medicine until other options have been exhausted. Once the blood pressure medication has been prescribed it is usually a lifetime prescription.
Side Effects
Every type of blood pressure lowering medication has a side effect. However, it is ubiquitously believed these side effects are minor when compared to the effects of a heart attack or a stroke, for instance.
One side effect of a diuretic is that it may rid the body of potassium, so often a banana or an orange a day is prescribed to make up for this deficit. Beta-blockers may slow down the heart rate more than it would be desired. So, one can easily see that a person on blood pressure medication needs to be monitored frequently, not only to have his/her blood pressure checked but also to check to see if there are any ill effects from the medications.
Symptoms
Sometimes high blood pressure will cause a patient to have frequent headaches. Other times a person with high blood pressure will feel dizzy or confused. This would especially be noticed by the patient upon standing up after sitting for a long time, as in after traveling some distance in a car. Most times a person with high blood pressure has no symptoms at all. It is for this reason hypertension has been called the silent killer. It should be noted that whether or not a person has symptoms with high blood pressure does not determine how high the blood pressure is. Only a health care professional can determine that.
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