How to Choose Blood Pressure Medications

It can be scary when your doctor first tells you that you have high blood pressure. This condition can put you at risk for complications such as heart attack and stroke. Fortunately, there are many medications that can be used to treat high blood pressure, either alone or in combination. Whether your high blood pressure is mild or severe, your doctor can help you choose one that will control your condition.

Instructions

    • 1

      Make an appointment with your doctor to determine just how high your blood pressure actually is. You may only have pre-hypertension, which includes blood pressure readings between 120/80 and 139/89, or you may have stage one or stage two hypertension. Your blood pressure reading will have an influence on the best medication.

    • 2

      Discuss your current blood pressure level and any additional risk factors with your doctor. Your blood pressure will have a strong influence on the medications he chooses, but he will also consider risk factors such as a history of heart failure or a prior heart attack or stroke, kidney disease, or diabetes. If you have any of these, he might take a more aggressive treatment appropriate and start off with a more potent combination of medications.

    • 3

      If you have pre-hypertension or stage one hypertension, ask your doctor whether your blood pressure needs to be lowered quickly due to risk factors or whether it's okay for the process to be gradual. Diuretic medications will combat your hypertension gradually. If you add an additional medication--like an ACE inhibitor, calcium channel blocker or beta blocker--your readings will go down more quickly.

    • 4

      If you have stage two hypertension, ask your doctor which combination of drugs she recommends. If you're at stage two, the Mayo Clinic says you most likely will be given both a diuretic and an ACE inhibitor, angiotensin II receptor blocker, calcium channel blocker, or beta blocker as the first line of treatment.

    • 5

      Monitor your blood pressure to assess the medicaton's effectiveness. If it doesn't appear to be working, make an appointment with your doctor to discuss adding another medication. He may recommend adding alpha blocker, vasodilator, or a central-acting agent. According to the Mayo Clinic, these medications are strong and tend to have more side effects than other drugs for hypertension, so they are not usually used unless you're not responding well to standard treatments.

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