Many people take medicine every day to help manage their health, especially as they get older. One common health problem is high blood pressure, also called hypertension.
It affects around one in ten people across the world. If not treated, it can lead to serious problems like heart attacks or strokes.
That’s why doctors often prescribe special pills to help lower blood pressure. These pills are called ACE inhibitors, beta blockers, and calcium channel blockers.
At the same time, another condition becomes more common with age, called diverticulosis. This is when small, pouch-like bumps appear in the wall of your intestine.
The intestine is a long tube inside your body that helps you digest food. These little pouches usually don’t cause any trouble, but sometimes they can become inflamed or infected. This can lead to pain or other gut problems.
Recently, scientists from Imperial College London decided to look more closely at how blood pressure pills might affect other parts of the body, especially the gut. They wondered if the medicine we take for our heart might be changing things in our digestive system too.
To find out, the researchers studied the genes of about 750,000 people. They focused on proteins in the body that are changed or targeted by blood pressure drugs. First, they figured out which proteins are affected by these medications.
Then, they looked at the DNA of hundreds of thousands of people to see if those same proteins are linked to gut problems like diverticulosis.
What they found was surprising. One group of blood pressure drugs — the calcium channel blockers — might be connected to a higher risk of getting diverticulosis. These drugs help relax blood vessels so blood can flow more easily.
But it’s possible they also relax muscles in the gut that help move food along. If the gut muscles are too relaxed, food might not move properly, which could cause those small pouches to form.
The scientists say this doesn’t mean people should stop taking their medicine. Dr. Dipender Gill, the lead researcher, made it clear that these pills are still very important for controlling high blood pressure and preventing heart problems. He said that the benefits of these medicines are well proven.
This new research, published in the journal Circulation, helps us understand more about how drugs can affect many parts of the body. It doesn’t mean that calcium channel blockers are unsafe. Instead, it shows us that everyone’s body reacts a little differently, and doctors might be able to use this information to improve care in the future.
If you take blood pressure medicine, don’t stop without talking to your doctor. High blood pressure is a serious condition, and it’s important to keep it under control. But it’s also helpful to know that researchers are working hard to make treatments safer and more effective for everyone.
In the future, studies like this could help doctors choose the best medicine for each person — one that helps the heart without causing other problems. As we learn more, treatments for blood pressure may become more personalized and cause fewer side effects.
If you care about high blood pressure, please read studies about unhealthy habits that may increase high blood pressure risk, and drinking green tea could help lower blood pressure.
For more information about high blood pressure, please see recent studies about what to eat or to avoid for high blood pressure, and 12 foods that lower blood pressure.
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