High Blood Pressure
Medication Part I: When Treating High Blood Pressure
The goal of every kind of treatment for
hypertension is to reach and maintain a controlled level of blood
pressure. This can be achieved either by medications or by healthy
lifestyle changes. Treatments preferred would vary from person to
person, as individual conditions would have to be taken into
consideration. Along with these, it is also necessary to take the risk
factors of the patients into consideration.
To
control your blood pressure, your doctor, first of all, will advise you
to make some healthy changes in your lifestyle. This is a sure part of
the treatment. Life style changes may include weight loss, exercise,
diet, salt restriction and the likes. Later on, if these changes fail to
bring the desired results, you are prescribed with some medicines.
High
BP medicines may include diuretics, angiotensin receptor blockers
(ARBs), or alpha blockers, beta-blockers, calcium channel blockers, and
angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors.
Your blood
pressure treatment also depends on the “risk group” you fall into. All
blood pressure patients such as pre-hypertension patients (120-139/80-89
mmHg), mild blood pressure patients (140-159/90-99 mmHg) and moderate to
severe blood pressure patients (more than 140-159/90-99 mmHg) can be
divided into three risk groups.
Risk Group A: These are the BP
patients with no heart disease.
1) Risk Group A patients with pre-hypertension (120-139/80-89 mmHg) only
need to make some changes in their lifestyle.
2) People with mild blood pressure (140-159/90-99 mmHg) are required to
undergo a year long trial of lifestyle changes. If these fail, then
some drugs might be prescribed.
3) People with moderate to severe blood pressure, need both lifestyle
changes and medications.
Risk Group B: These are the BP patients with heart
disease
1) Risk Group B patients with pre-hypertension (120-139/80-89 mmHg) only
require to make some changes in their lifestyle.
2) People with mild blood pressure (140-159/90-99 mmHg) are required to
undergo a six month trial of lifestyle changes only. If blood pressure
does not decrease within those six months, try drug treatments.
3) People with moderate to severe blood pressure must make lifestyle
changes and also take some sort of medicines.
Risk Group C: Risk factors for BP patients with diabetes, heart disease
and other organ damage.
1) Risk Group C patients with pre-hypertension (120-139/80-89 mmHg)
entail lifestyle changes and medications.
2) People with mild blood pressure (140-159/90-99 mmHg) are recommended
to modify their lifestyle changes and have medications.
3) People with moderate to severe blood pressure desperately require
lifestyle changes and intake of some sort of medi
Being a patient of hypertension you also need to know the details about
the commonly prescribed medication for high blood pressure medication.
In the next part of this article you can obtain this information.