High blood pressure, also known as hypertension, affects more than one in three adults in Australia. It’s a serious condition that can lead to heart disease, stroke, and other health problems if not managed well.
Many people take daily medicine to control their blood pressure. One of the most common medicines used is called hydrochlorothiazide.
Hydrochlorothiazide is a diuretic. This means it helps the body get rid of extra salt and water. This lowers the amount of fluid in the blood vessels and helps the heart pump more easily. It is a cheap and effective drug, and it has been used for many years.
But new research from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney has raised some concerns. Scientists found that this drug may increase the risk of getting certain types of skin cancer.
The concern is that hydrochlorothiazide may make the skin more sensitive to sunlight. If someone takes it for many years, especially older adults, they may be more likely to develop skin problems like lip cancer and melanoma.
The study used health records from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. It looked at people aged 65 and older in New South Wales between 2004 and 2015. The researchers reviewed information about cancer diagnoses, hospital visits, and medicine use.
They compared 45 people with lip cancer and 659 people with melanoma to a group of over 13,000 people who did not have these cancers.
The findings showed that people who used hydrochlorothiazide had a higher chance of getting malignant melanoma, which is a very dangerous kind of skin cancer. They were also more likely to develop lip cancer, especially if they had taken the medicine for a long time.
The link to skin cancer may be due to the way the drug affects the skin. It makes the skin more sensitive to UV rays from the sun, which could lead to more damage over time. Sun damage is known to be a major cause of skin cancer.
Even though this news is worrying, health experts say that people should not stop taking their medicine without first speaking to their doctor. Managing high blood pressure is still very important.
The benefits of the drug may still outweigh the risks for many people. But doctors and patients should be aware of the potential risk and take steps to reduce sun exposure.
This can include using sunscreen, wearing a wide-brimmed hat, staying in the shade, and wearing long sleeves when outdoors. Doctors might also check patients’ skin more often and consider other medicines if needed.
Because of this study, the official safety information for hydrochlorothiazide in Australia has been updated to include a warning about the possible risk of skin cancer. The research was led by Dr. Benjamin Daniels and published in the journal Basic & Clinical Pharmacology & Toxicology. It supports earlier studies from other countries that found similar risks.
More studies are still needed to better understand how big the risk is and whether other blood pressure drugs might be safer. For now, the advice is to keep taking your medicine if your doctor says so, but also take care of your skin and go for regular health checks.
If you care about skin health, please read studies about eating fish linked to higher risk of skin cancer, and Vitamin B3 could help prevent skin cancers.
For more health information, please see recent studies about vegetable oil linked to spread of cancer, and results showing Vitamin D could help treat skin inflammation.
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