Hypertension Medical Treatment Help
The persons that absolutely and immediately need medicines for their hypertension are those with higher blood pressure, more than 160/95 mm Hg. The people that almost touch this value receive from their doctors several recommendations, depending on their age, sex or particularities.
The first step is always the lifestyle change. Smoking and alcohol should be avoided, because they increase the blood pressure. In addition, a healthy diet, poor in salt and sodium and rich in seaweeds and other aliments that eliminate the "Fatty build-ups" around your blood vessels is extremely important. Half an hour of daily exercises are also helpful.
For the cases in which it takes more than lifestyle change to control hypertension, the doctor will prescribe medicines.
Except for the patients with heart conditions, the first choices of the doctors to lower the blood pressure are beta-blockers and diuretics. The effect of diuretics is to purify the body of water and salt, which lowers the blood pressure. The beta-blockers decrease the quantity of blood pumped by the heart, in order to obtain the same effect.
In case this first choice doesn't lead to the expected results, the second line treatment intervenes. It is composed of vasodilators, angiotensin, and calcium-channel blockers.
Vasodilatators lower blood pressure by producing the relaxation of the muscles of peripheral arteries, which drives to a decrease of their resistance to the blood flow.
ACE inhibitors block the production of angiotensin, a hormone that generates high blood pressure.
A relaxation of the vessels is produced by calcium-channel blockers; blood circulation takes place easier through them, so blood pressure is lowered.
Another category of medicines is that of the centrally acting drugs. These are extremely powerful and act on the nervous system, by producing a blockage in the transmission between the nervous impulses and the autonomic nervous system, where the circulatory system is involuntary controlled.