Instructions for taking blood pressure medication correctly

For patients with high blood pressure, in addition to lifestyle changes, it is necessary to adhere to treatment and follow up with the doctor's appointment to be able to control blood pressure stably to avoid serious complications and complications.

High blood pressure (or high blood pressure) is a chronic disease, when the pressure of the blood on the artery walls increases, causing a lot of pressure on the heart. This is also the cause of many serious cardiovascular complications such as cerebrovascular accident, heart failure, coronary heart disease, myocardial infarction.
Take blood pressure medicine before or after eating, because blood pressure drugs are prepared to drink without regard to meals, will not affect the stomach. Some people have the habit of just waking up, measuring their blood pressure and recording it in a monitoring book, and then taking medicine is not a problem.
However, the Hygia Chronotherapy study led by Dr. Ramón C. Hermida, a professor at the University of Vigo, Spain, randomly assigned 19,084 adults to take blood pressure medication upon waking in the morning or in the evening before bedtime with a mean follow-up of 6 years.

The results showed that patients who regularly took their blood pressure medication at night before going to bed had a difference when taking their blood pressure medication in the morning in having better blood pressure control and most importantly is a significant reduction in the risk of death from cardiovascular disease or the risk of cardiovascular problems.
Regarding the risk of cardiovascular complications, this is the largest and longest-running clinical trial to examine the effect of time of day antihypertensive medication.

Taking blood pressure medication before bed not only improves blood pressure control, but also significantly reduces the risk of cardiovascular death by 66% and cardiovascular events such as heart attack or stroke by 49% because it can is eliminated more slowly and has a longer duration of action
The effect of dosing time on pharmacodynamics is explained by cyclical fluctuations during the day in the free-marketing fraction, the rate of major metabolic and biochemical cycles, the number and identity of receptors and signaling pathways in the cell nucleus.
When a doctor prescribes medications to be taken once a day, it is usually convenient to take them in the morning. Currently there are many antihypertensive drugs prescribed once daily that do not have a stable 24-hour antihypertensive effect and when taken in the morning may not provide effective control. nocturnal blood pressure. This is an important predictor of mortality and major cardiovascular events in hypertensive patients.

Taking medicine must be continuously, on time and regularly every day because the drug only works for 24 hours, avoiding the case of forgetting to take the medicine or taking it every other day, the patient's blood pressure will be unstable. There are also many cases where the patient's blood pressure is increased or the symptoms of dizziness or headache appear, then they take the medicine to take it, and when the blood pressure is stable and normal, they automatically stop taking it.
Take the full dose because antihypertensive drugs can only work when a certain threshold is reached, so blood pressure will not be well controlled. Patients often arbitrarily increase or decrease the dose of the drug during treatment.
Many cases at first take the drug seriously, follow the doctor's instructions, but then due to many reasons such as realizing that the body is healthy, there are no symptoms of high blood pressure or fear of side effects. of the drug, reduce the dose arbitrarily.

Similarly, there are people who still feel headache and discomfort thinking that their blood pressure is increased but not for any other reason, have automatically increased the dose of the drug, which can cause an excessive drop in blood pressure, even causing a collapse, dead .
Patients need to strictly adhere to the interval between blood pressure medications. For drugs taken once a day, it should be taken at a fixed hour, and for drugs taken twice a day, it should be divided equally within 24 hours, every 12 hours to take the drug once, that is, if the first time is taken at 8 hours. In the morning, take the medicine for the second time at 8 pm

People with high blood pressure must be treated for life because high blood pressure is a chronic disease that cannot be cured, requiring blood pressure medication to control blood pressure stably. Therefore, the most important rule is that long-term treatment of hypertension should not be stopped. Even when blood pressure has dropped to normal, the patient must still adhere to the principle of continuous treatment.
Need early drug intervention to avoid high blood pressure before using the drug. When patients experience complications of high blood pressure, it will be very difficult to recover. Patients need to strictly adhere to the new treatment regimen to reduce the complications caused by hypertension. Once the target blood pressure has been achieved, it is necessary to continue maintaining the treatment regimen with close and periodic monitoring by a cardiologist for timely drug or dose adjustment when necessary.

When going to the doctor, whether it is a chronic or acute disease, the patient needs to clearly state the status of taking blood pressure medication so that the doctor can consider prescribing to avoid or minimize drug interactions. When buying common medications without a doctor's prescription, patients should carefully read the instructions for use to see if there are any warnings or side effects related to high blood pressure and the use of blood pressure medication. or not. If so, be careful before using or consult a doctor.
When suffering from high blood pressure, the patient first needs to adjust the appropriate lifestyle, lifestyle and exercise accordingly. You should do light exercise like walking is best. In daily life, it is necessary to avoid the risks of high blood pressure such as: nervous tension, salty food, stress, drinking alcohol, smoking,...; should eat a lot of fiber and especially always keep a comfortable mental life...
Hypertension is a chronic disease and causes many serious complications if not handled promptly. The correct intake of blood pressure medication is one of the important considerations in the treatment process, which directly affects the effectiveness of the regimen.
For more detailed information about this disease, you can refer to related articles at the Website of Vinmec International General Hospital or contact the nationwide Vinmec Health System Hotline for advice, or Register online HERE.