Cold Remedies for People With Heart Conditions

If you have a heart condition, even over-the-counter medications can cause potentially dangerous drug interactions, especially if you are on prescription heart medications. Communication with your doctor is absolutely essential. Take the wrong combination of drugs and the can work against each other and leave you without protection or worse can aggravate your heart problems and threaten your life.

Avoiding Interactions

• Talk to your physician in advance about your heart condition and find out what the risks of the medications hehas prescribed to treat your condition. Find out what drugs, nutritional supplements, herbs and food or drinks to avoid. The Merck Drug Manual or Physician's Desk Reference has detailed information about drug interactions, side effects and health risks. Get to know your medications so you are forewarned

NSAIDS

• Many common over-the-counter cold-relief medications actually make your heart condition worse. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like aspirin, ibuprofen and naproxen can cause your body to retain sodium and water, decrease kidney function and increase blood pressure. Be aware that many cold medications also contain NSAIDs in their formulas. Ibuprofen, particularly, should not be used if you're taking MAO inhibitors like isocarboxazid (Marplan), selegiline (Eldepryl, Emsam), or tranylcypromine (Parnate), phenelzine (Nardil) and rasagiline (Azilect), within the past two weeks. You should also avoid ibuprofen if you're recently had heart surgery, a stint or bypass. Ibuprofen can also cause serious problems in the digestive system including bleeding or perforation (forming of a hole) or even death.

Decongestants

• Stimulants commonly used in cold medications like pseudoephedrine are normally safe, but for patients with hypertension, thyroid and heart problems or atrial fibrillation, pseudoephedrine can cause irregular heart rhythms, increased blood pressure, heart attack and stroke. Phenylpropanolamine (PPA) can spike blood pressure and was pulled from the market, but may still be in circulation in older cold medicines. Both these compounds react badly with the same medications listed above for ibuprofen.

Forms of Problem Medications

• Chemical compounds that can cause problems for heart patients can be found in everything from liquid cold and cough medicines, nasal sprays, tablets ointments and capsules. These problem products relieve cold and allergy symptoms by constricting blood vessels and reducing swelling in nasal passages. Always check labels no matter what form they come in. They can still raise blood pressure and for people who already have heart problems, they and related medications can be extremely dangerous. Call 911 if you accidentally take one of these medications and have heart or circulation problems, chest pain, shortness of breath, slurred speech, vision or balance problems.