What Everyone Who Suffers from High Blood Pressure Needs to Know
High Blood Pressure Medications and Diabetes
If you have high blood pressure and are concerned about the side effects of the medication you take, recent headlines will probably not calm your fears. New reports currently out have indicated that certain medications used to treat high blood pressure can actually increase the risk of diabetes.
To Take or Not To Take...
Whether or not you take high blood pressure medication becomes a risks-benefits analysis that your doctor has to make. Your doctor will consider many of the following questions. How dangerously high is your blood pressure? Did your high blood pressure not improve through diet and exercise alone? Have you not had success with other blood pressure medications?
Researchers investigated the side effects of popular blood pressure medications and published their results in The Lancet this month. Diuretics and beta blockers were the two categories of blood pressure medications that were shown to be linked with diabetes.
There are many other categories of blood pressure medications discussed in this article, so keep in mind there are other options that you can discuss with your doctor if you are concerned.
Playing it Safe
You will definitely need to check with your doctor if you want to change your blood pressure medication. Sometimes it is necessary to taper a medication rather than stopping it abruptly. When your doctor decides what blood pressure medication to prescribe to you, it is usual a risks-benefits analysis. The reason for this is because no medication comes without side effects. If you are already at an increased risk for diabetes due to a family history of the disease, then it might be necessary for you to avoid taking diuretics and beta blockers.
Not everyone will be impacted the same from taking high blood pressure medications shown to increase diabetes risk, so it’s definitely necessary to talk with your doctor before trying to make changes to your current medication schedule.