Tests Should Be Part of Routine Care, Experts Say
(ABC News) — Tests for a blood-pressure regulating hormone called renin may help doctors decide which blood pressure drugs their patients should take, researchers said on Wednesday.
They said a mismatch between drugs and patient characteristics may help explain why many people do not benefit from blood pressure drugs, and testing for renin levels may help.
“The one-size-fits-all approach must be abandoned,” said Dr. Curt Furberg of Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina, who wrote a commentary on the studies in the American Journal of Hypertension.
Currently, fewer than half of patients are helped when they take just one blood pressure drug, and many must take more than one to keep blood pressure down.
A study in May in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that about half of the 65 million people in the United States with high blood pressure have it under control.
Furberg said researchers have known for years that patients respond differently to different drugs for high blood pressure, yet this has not translated into tests and strategies that help find the best treatments for individual patients.
In a series of studies in the same journal, three research teams looked at different aspects of this problem.
Read More and Watch News Clip >>
Loading ...
Loading ...
I am one of those people that has tried about 20 + high blood pressure medicines that only give me bad side affects but do NOT lower my blood pressure. The medical profession is very upset with me because I have told them that I will not take one more high blood pressure medicine. Each new medicine only raises my BP reading. At present it sits around 260/210. They say I should be dead with that. One doctor (probably the only one that believes my chart of medicines I have taken) told me that he could understand why I was not going to take another BP med.
I am white, nearly 80 years old and have had HB pressure problem for over 2 decades {that I know of}.
Reduce tea-intake gradually,and never between 5pm & 9am. Start off with at least 2 aspirins a day (with food), at least 150mg at a time, one with breakfast and another with dinner, after ensuring that aspirins are not contra-indicated along with the usual pills you must be taking. Don’t know whether you are already doing brisk walks 30mins a day.Jog?
I got good results from pranayama (breathing exercises) & had to quit the 1-tab-per-day schedule. But I am 57.5years & my BP was never in the stratosphere like yours. For3years I was on 50mgAtenolol+5mgAmlodipine per day.
This happened to my mother! She outlived two doctors and then was forced to find a new one, which was daunting. The new doctor was a bit ‘young’ in her opinion.
He asked her to bring all her medications with her on her next visit, looked at them and said: “Ok, let’s see which ones we can get rid off.”
At that time she took a handful of medications for all sorts of ailments, including some to treat the side-effects of drugs. He managed to reduce her meds to about half and managed to take her off insulin injections. All this improved her quality of life considerably.
I guess that sometimes it is the sheer amount of medications taken that makes the patients more ill, especially elderly patients.
I suggest to change doctors and ask him/her to consider whether it may be possible that it is the medication that makes you ill.
260/210 is very serious. The brutality of it all is that with this high blood pressure you have nothing to lose and a trial of removing some of the medication may be beneficial. Even at 80 you must consider lifestyle changes, such as changing your diet, which is easier said than done, especially if you live in an aged-care facility. If you live on your own, I suggest to try the DASH diet first and stick to it.
About two months ago my doctor took me off Lexapro [High BP] and Liritor. Since this, I have had headaches,dizzness,leg weakness and vary other affects. Is this normal?