Widely used high blood pressure drugs may increase sleep loss

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Sleeping is a basic human need, like eating, drinking, and breathing. Like these other needs, sleeping is vital for good health and well-being throughout your lifetime.

Sleep deprivation is a condition that occurs if you don’t get enough sleep.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 1 in 3 adults in the United States reported not getting enough rest or sleep every day.

In a study from the Berlin Institute of Health, scientists found that beta-blockers treat heart diseases and were not more likely to cause depression compared to other similar treatments.

While depression may occur during beta-blocker therapy, the research suggests beta-blockers are not the likely cause.

However, unusual dreams, insomnia and sleep disorders may be linked to beta-blockers.

Beta-blockers are a class of medications that reduce the heart rate, the heart’s workload and the heart’s output of blood, which, together, lower blood pressure.

They are a common treatment for cardiovascular diseases, including heart failure, arrhythmias, chest pains and high blood pressure.

Researchers have suspected beta-blockers of having negative psychological side effects, including depression, anxiety, drowsiness, insomnia, hallucinations and nightmares.

In the study, the team analyzed data for more than 50,000 individuals from 258 studies including beta-blockers.

Nearly 70% of the studies were clinical trials focused on high blood pressure treatment, and 31 assessed depression.

The team found despite being the most frequently reported mental health side effect, depression did not occur more frequently during beta-blocker treatment compared to placebo treatment.

The rate of discontinuing medication use due to depression was not any different for those taking beta-blockers compared to those on other treatments.

Unusual dreams, insomnia, and sleep disorders may be linked to beta-blockers.

Among the mental health events analyzed, the most common reason for discontinuing beta-blockers was fatigue/tiredness.

The results indicate that concerns about adverse mental health events, especially depression, should not affect the decision about beta-blockers.

Beta-blockers are mostly safe regarding psychological health.

However, sleep-related symptoms such as unusual dreams or insomnia did emerge during beta-blocker therapy for some patients.

If you care about blood pressure, please read studies that cherry concentrate could lower blood pressure as much as drugs, and 3 grams of omega-3s a day keep high blood pressure at bay.

For more information about nutrition, please see recent studies that green tea could strongly reduce blood pressure, and results showing marijuana may strongly increase death risk in high blood pressure

The study was published in Hypertension and conducted by Reinhold Kreutz et al.

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