High Blood Pressure Medication

Different Types of High Blood Pressure Medication

Hypertension is a serious medical condition where the blood pressure is abnormally high due to the stronger pumping of the heart. This condition can be triggered by a lot of different factors, including obesity and genetics. A person with this condition, is usually prescribed high blood pressure medication in order to regulate their blood circulation.

Diuretics

One of the possible causes of hypertension is the elevated levels of sodium in the body. In this case, diuretics may be the best high blood pressure medication to use.

With the help of these drugs, the body is able to flush out the excess salts from the body through urine. These are drugs that help your body to rid itself of excess fluids and salt. These aren’t usually used alone, but as a part of a prescription regimen to control your blood pressure.

Diuretics are quite effective, although they may raise your sugar levels. Hence, its use is not advisable for people who have diabetes.

Angiotensin-Converting Enzymes Inhibitors

Another class of medicines is ACE inhibitors. This is a drug that slows down the production of a natural chemical in the body that causes blood vessels to decrease. This actually causes your blood vessels to dilate which takes away some of the pressure.

Angiotensin-converting enzymes inhibitors are considered a good high blood pressure medication for diabetics because it doesn’t affect blood glucose levels in any way. What it does is widen the blood vessels, making for faster and more efficient blood flow, and ultimately lowering blood pressure levels.

Beta Blockers

Another highly recommended high blood pressure medication, beta blockers prevent the heart from exerting too much effort in pumping blood. Therefore, it not only lowers blood pressure but also reduces the unhealthy tension on the heart. However, like other high blood pressure drugs, beta blockers may contradict with diabetes medications.

Natural supplements are an alternative to beta blockers. >>>

It may work well for some diabetics but to be on the safe side, make sure your doctors know all medications you are taking so that they can give you the best prescription. Although all these high blood pressure medications are effective in their own way, most of them also come with some kind of negative side effect.

Some people may experience temporary dizziness, coughing, reduced potassium levels, difficulty in sleeping, or so on, upon taking the medication. Most of these side effects are quite mild, however, and do not last long.

Central Agonists

Some medications are called central agonists. These medicines prevent blood vessels from contracting so that pressure won’t increase. They take advantage of signals in the nervous system to do their job.

Alpha Blockers

Alpha blockers are a class of drugs that cause the blood vessel walls to become more relaxed. They also reduce blood pressure but in a different way that the other drugs that have a similar function.

Calcium Channel Blockers

There are also drugs called calcium channel blockers. In muscles, calcium helps cells to create a stronger contraction. By blocking some, but not all, of that calcium the muscles can’t contract as hard.

Calcium channel blockers cause the heart and blood vessels to have weaker contractions. This lowers the amount of blood that is move through the heart during one contraction and lowers blood pressure.

Vasodilators

There’s also a group of medications called vasodilators. These drugs specifically cause the blood vessels in your body to dilate so that blood doesn’t have as much pressure moving through them.

Sometimes you’ll be prescribed one medication, but when your blood pressure is very high your doctor may want to try more than one drug in order to attack high blood pressure in different ways. It’s important to have a discussion with your doctor to understand the mechanism by which they work.

Natural Alternatives To Beta Blockers

Many people prefer not to use medications and search for natural blood pressure remedies.

Dr Mercola says:

For the vast majority of you, the following three tips will cause your high blood pressure to normalize quite quickly:

1. Limit grains and sugars in your diet. This will help to normalize your insulin and leptin levels, which is essential for good blood pressure. In my experience this is one of the most common reasons why people have elevated blood pressures. High insulin levels tend to drive blood pressures up.

2. Exercise regularly. In some cases, you may need to work your way up to one hour a day. This will also help to get your insulin and leptin levels where they need to be.

3. Manage the stress in your life. The Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) is a simple and inexpensive tool that can help you to do this.

There are many effective high blood pressure medications today but it is generally discouraged to rely solely on such medications for the improvement of your condition.

Instead, lifestyle changes should also be made, like switching from a diet rich in fatty and greasy foods to one that is made up mostly of fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as other high-fiber foods. Breathing exercises to lower high stress levels are also helpful!

If you don’t want to experience any of these side effects, you may want to ask your doctor about natural high blood pressure supplements and other alternative treatments.