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High Blood Pressure Treatment - an Introduction
At one point, Doctors hesitated to prescribe
medication for patients with a blood
pressure reading of less than 159/99 Hg.
This was described as “mild hypertension”
and as such not deemed at the time to be
dangerous.
The rationale behind this that Doctors felt
that the adverse side effects of the
medication used at the time would possibly
be of more danger to the patient than the
high blood pressure readings.
Times have changed however and this line of
thinking is no longer in use. Both of the
above perceptions relating to the danger of
the side effects and the mild nature of the
blood pressure readings have lead to the
discontinuance of this practice.
Recent research has firmly established the
value of treating “stage 1 Hypertension” (a
reading of between 140/90 – 159/99 Hg) with
medication if necessary. It is now also
considered prudent to treat patients who
also suffer from Diabetes and High Blood
Pressure if their readings are as low as
130/80 Hg. The sensitivity of medication
nowadays is such that blood pressure levels
can be controlled with much lower dosages
meaning that the danger of side effects can
also be reduced.
There has never been a greater variety of
medication for High Blood Pressure available
to Doctors from which to choose. These
“antihypertensive drugs” also include many
types of medication where there is a
combination of several different types of
drug. The newer types of medication quite
often have a different chemical makeup and
structure compared to the older ones but
quite often produce nearly identical effects
on the human body.
The range and sophistication of medication
is such now that Doctors can produce care
plans and treatment programmes tailored to
the individual patient and in most cases
prescribe medication that have little or
minimal side effect to the patient and
protect against possible further
complications down the line.
On of the most important aspects of where
treatment differs nowadays is that Doctors
can quite possibly provide one single course
of medication that can treat conditions like
Hypertension and accompanying medical
problems like congestive Heart Failure.
The generally accepted initial approach to
Hypertension Treatment nowadays is to start
slow & low and then build gradually where
possible gradually increasing the dosage of
the medicine prescribed until the blood
pressure level sinks to a normal level. If
this is not shown to work or causes
troublesome side effects then a wide number
of replacement medications are available for
use.
The presently accepted course of treatment
for Stage 1 Hypertension is to start with
one drug and add a second if the blood
pressure reading does not respond or
decrease to normal levels. The target levels
here are 140/90 Hg. For those with diabetes
or chronic kidney disease then the ideal
targets are reduced to 130/80 Hg. For “Stage
2 Hypertension” (the old levels of
conventional High Blood Pressure) then the
accepted treatment programme is to start
with at least 2 drugs. Again if the response
to this is not within an acceptable
timeframe then the introduction of a third
drug may occur.
Just when you think that Hypertension can be
controlled with purely medication. There is
a marked improvement to all of these
programmes when the medication is
accompanied by the introduction and
implementation of lifestyle changes such as
a well balanced diet, reduction in the
consumption of alcohol, increased exercise
and a complete cessation of smoking.
‘Nuff said really.
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High Blood Pressure, causes, cures, treatment, and
more.......
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