Some Meds You Take May Increase Your Blood Pressure

By Denise Mann
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Nov. 29, 2021 (HealthDay News) — Nearly 1 in 5 individuals with hypertension could also be unintentionally taking a drug for an additional situation that causes their blood strain to climb even larger, a brand new research suggests.

Left untreated or undertreated, hypertension will improve your danger for coronary heart assault, stroke, kidney illness and imaginative and prescient issues by damaging blood vessels. Lifestyle modifications comparable to weight reduction, limiting salt consumption, and/or remedy may help transfer your blood strain numbers again into the traditional vary. But asking your physician whether or not any medication you take for different situations is perhaps pushing these numbers up is definitely worth the effort, the researchers mentioned.

“The danger of [drugs] elevating blood strain could also be merely missed, significantly for sufferers utilizing these further medicines for a few years,” mentioned research writer Dr. Timothy Anderson. He is a clinician investigator and an assistant professor of drugs at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

“We hope our article helps change this, as in lots of instances there are efficient therapeutic alternate options to medicines that will elevate blood strain or methods to attenuate danger, comparable to having sufferers monitor their dwelling blood pressures when beginning a brand new remedy that will elevate blood strain,” Anderson mentioned.

For the research, the researchers reviewed information from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 2009 to 2018. They checked out the usage of the medication recognized to lift blood strain, together with antidepressants, prescription-strength non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication (NSAIDs), steroids, hormonal medicines, decongestants and weight-loss tablets amongst individuals with hypertension.

The research discovered that 18.5% of adults with hypertension reported taking a medicine that elevated their blood strain, and people who did had been extra prone to have uncontrolled hypertension in the event that they weren’t additionally on blood pressure-lowering medicines.

And individuals who had been on blood strain medication had been extra prone to want larger doses to regulate their blood strain if additionally they took medication for different situations that elevate blood strain, the research confirmed.

What must you do if in case you have hypertension?

Ask your physician if any of your medicines will have an effect on your numbers, Anderson prompt.

“It is all the time smart to ask your physician about attainable interactions between new medicines [including over-the-counter medicines] and current situations and coverings,” he mentioned. “This is especially true for sufferers who see a number of docs who could not all the time be updated on their remedy lists.”

Sometimes alternate options can be found, Anderson mentioned. For instance, acetaminophen would not elevate blood strain, however NSAIDs do. Both of those medication can deal with ache and scale back fever.

The new findings had been revealed not too long ago within the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.

Dr. Michael Goyfman is chief of cardiology at Long Island Jewish Forest Hills in New York City. He understands how these types of issues can occur inadvertently.

“Various physicians and specialists don’t essentially discuss to one another, and continuously their digital well being data don’t talk with one another,” mentioned Goyfman, who wasn’t a part of the research. “As a end result, sufferers will be positioned on quite a lot of medicines by completely different suppliers, a few of that are counterproductive to particular medical points.”

There are methods to stop these eventualities. “Always deliver essentially the most up to date remedy record to every physician’s go to,” Goyfman beneficial.

Dr. George Bakris, director of the American Heart Association’s Comprehensive Hypertension Center in Chicago, additionally reviewed the findings and agreed. “I’d urge sufferers who’re prescribed medicines recognized to extend blood strain to verify their blood strain at dwelling after a number of days,” he mentioned.

If your blood strain is elevated, contact your physician to search out out what to do subsequent, Bakris suggested.

More data

Learn extra about the way to handle hypertension on the American Heart Association.

SOURCES: Timothy Anderson, MD, clinician investigator, assistant professor, drugs, Harvard Medical School, Boston; Michael Goyfman MD, chief, cardiology, Long Island Jewish Forest Hills, New York City; George Bakris, MD, professor, drugs, and director, American Heart Association’s Comprehensive Hypertension Center, University of Chicago Medicine; JAMA Internal Medicine, Nov. 22, 2021