There are several different types of hypertension, or high blood pressure, medications. The first line of treatment is usually a diuretic. If a diuretic proves unsuccessful in lowering your blood pressure, your doctor may add or substitute it with a beta blocker or calcium channel blocker. These drugs can decrease absorption and deplete the body of calcium, as well as other essential micronutrients. A calcium channel blocker should be a drug of last resort if you have impaired kidney or liver function, or are pregnant, as the drug may cause edema or swelling.
Clinical Diagnosis
Hypertension is a term your doctor uses to describe your blood pressure when it is persistently abnormally high. According to the Cleveland Clinic, a normal blood pressure is a systolic pressure of less than 120 mm Hg, and a diastolic reading of less than 80 mm Hg. Stage 2 hypertension is a systolic pressure of 150 mm Hg and above and a diastolic reading of 100 mm Hg and above. It is critical to detect and treat hypertension early, as it can increase your risk of a heart attack, stroke or other circulatory disease.
Physiology
Normally, calcium moves freely into the muscle walls of your heart and blood vessels, causing them to constrict. When you take certain classes of anti-hypertensive drugs, the movement of calcium is blocked, causing the muscles to relax and the blood vessels to dilate, or widen, allowing blood to freely move into and out of the blood vessels. This process lowers your blood pressure. As a result, the blocked calcium is flushed from your body through urine.
Diuretics
The kidneys absorb water, waste products and numerous micronutrients, including sodium, potassium and calcium, which are reabsorbed from your kidneys into your bloodstream. When you take a diuretic, the drug reduces this re-absorption of water and nutrients into the bloodstream from the kidney tubules and redirects it as urinary output. Diuretics also reduce your blood volume by drawing more fluid and nutrients out of the body tissues. Your physician may prescribe a vitamin and mineral supplement to replace the loss of these essential micronutrients.
Calcium Antagonists
Also called calcium blockers, calcium antagonists consist of a group of drugs that prevent or slow down the flow of calcium into muscle cells. These cells need calcium to activate contraction of heart and artery muscles. The regulation of calcium movement into your heart muscle cells is critical to heart tone, resistance and your blood pressure. By blocking the flow of calcium into your heart, these drugs treat angina, heart failure, and high blood pressure. Adverse effects of calcium channel blockers include headache, flushing dizziness, low blood pressure and palpitations.
Member Comments