The treatment of high blood pressure

  The first way to control hypertension is a lifestyle change. Although it is important to have a healthy alimentation and constant physical activity, sometimes medicines are required to lower the blood pressure. The stage of hypertension a patient has will influence his/her doctor in deciding what the proper treatment is. The medication is also influenced by the presence or absence of other diseases. Depending on the particularities of each patient, the doctor can consider appropriate either a high dose of a single medicine, or a combined treatment of low-doses of more medicines, which in many cases proved itself effective, more than the first one. It is important to know that not always the first prescribed treatment is the most effective, so that it is possible for a patient to try more than one treatment schemes:

Hypertension is most of the times controlled by one of a combination of the following classes of medications:

• * Beta blockers are effective medications, because they slower the heart beats rhythm, and diminishes the force of this beats. In black people, they only work is association with thiazide diuretics.
• * Thiazide diuretics - their action determines the release of a larger quantity of water and sodium from the kidneys. This reduces the volume of blood. The treatment based on thiazide diuretics is the most frequently used in the battle against hypertension, especially because they were proved by a study performed in 2006 to have an important role in the prevention of heart failure.
• * Calcium - channel blockers reduce the relaxation of the blood vessels' muscles, and, sometimes a decrease of the heart rate. They are more effective than beta-blockers or ACE inhibitors for black people. These medications have interactions with grapefruit juice, which are most risky. The doctor will recommend you what to do to prevent possible interactions.
• * ACE inhibitors block the production of the natural substance that generates the narrowing of the blood vessels, which drives to the relaxation of the vessels. They are recommended for people with heart failure, kidney failure and coronary heart disease. In black people they are effective only in combination with thiazide diuretics.
• * Angiotensin II receptor blockers block only the action, not the apparition of the natural chemical that generates the narrowing of blood vessels. Same as angiotensin - converting enzyme inhibitors, they produce the relaxation of the blood vessels and are prescribed to patients with kidney or heart failure and coronary artery disease.

In case one or a combination of the above-mentioned medications results ineffective, the alternatives prescribed by the doctor are:

• * Central-acting agents, which prevent the augmentation of the heart rate and the narrowing of the blood vessels by stopping the brain from signaling it.
• * Vasodilatators do not allow the muscles of the arteries to tighten and the blood vessels to narrow.
• * Alpha-blockers diminishes the nervous impulses received by the blood vessels and do not allow natural elements to narrow them.
• * Alpha-beta blockers have, besides the common effects with alpha blockers to additional benefit to slow the rhythm of the heart beats this diminishes the quantity of blood pumped through the blood vessels.

After control is gained over your hypertension, aspirin my be added to your treatment, to prevent cardiovascular conditions.