High blood pressure is a very common health problem that affects millions of people around the world. It happens when the force of blood pushing against the walls of your blood vessels is too strong. If not treated, it can lead to serious health problems like heart attacks, strokes, and kidney damage.
Luckily, there are medicines that can help lower blood pressure. But here’s the tricky part—there are several types of medicines that doctors can choose from, and it’s not always clear which one is the best to start with.
Right now, there are five main types of medicine that are approved to treat high blood pressure. These include ACE inhibitors, thiazide diuretics, calcium channel blockers, beta blockers, and angiotensin receptor blockers.
When doctors decide which one to use first, they often rely on their experience or what they were trained to do, instead of strong evidence from research. That’s because there hasn’t been enough clear research comparing these medicines to show which one works best for most people when they first begin treatment.
To learn more about this, researchers from Columbia University looked closely at two of the most common options: ACE inhibitors and thiazide diuretics. ACE inhibitors are one of the most popular choices among doctors.
These drugs work by relaxing blood vessels, which helps to lower blood pressure. On the other hand, thiazide diuretics help the body get rid of extra salt and water, which also lowers blood pressure.
The research team looked at medical records from almost 5 million people in the United States who started taking medicine for high blood pressure. They found that nearly half of these people were first given an ACE inhibitor. Only 17 out of every 100 patients started with a thiazide diuretic.
But here’s where it gets interesting. The people who started with thiazide diuretics had better outcomes than those who took ACE inhibitors. They had 15% fewer serious heart problems, such as heart attacks, heart failure, or strokes. They also had fewer side effects like kidney issues or high levels of potassium in the blood, which can be dangerous.
The researchers estimated that if everyone in the study who took an ACE inhibitor had instead been given a thiazide diuretic, about 3,100 serious heart-related problems could have been avoided.
This finding is important because it questions the current habits of many doctors. It suggests that thiazide diuretics might actually be a safer and more effective choice for starting treatment in many people with high blood pressure.
While it’s true that every patient is different, and doctors must always consider individual needs, this study gives doctors more useful information to help make those choices.
The study was published in the respected medical journal The Lancet, and it has started a conversation in the medical world. More studies will still be needed to confirm the results and to better understand why thiazide diuretics seem to work so well as a first treatment.
What this research reminds us is that even for something as common as high blood pressure, there is always more to learn. Sometimes, a medicine that’s been used less often may actually turn out to be the better option.
If you care about blood pressure, please read studies about blood pressure drug that may increase risk of sudden cardiac arrest, and these teas could help reduce high blood pressure.
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