Benefits of blood pressure medication

Dr. Steven Nissen of The Cleveland Clinic said, “Right now, nobody, absolutely nobody would recommend giving blood pressure medication to somebody with a blood pressure of less than 130 millimeters of mercury.”

Dr. Steven Nissen of The Cleveland Clinic said, “Right now, nobody, absolutely nobody would recommend giving blood pressure medication to somebody with a blood pressure of less than 130 millimeters of mercury.”But that may change because of a new study in JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association. It shows that heart disease patients who have normal blood pressure, which is about 130 over 80, can benefit from taking blood pressure medication.Dr. Nissen said, “We saw a very large reduction, a 31 percent reduction in the risk of heart attack, stroke, death, hospitalization for chest pain and/or need for angioplasty or bypass surgery.”Dr. Nissen, along with fellow researchers at The Cleveland Clinic, three other institutions and one pharmaceutical company, conducted the two-year study of about 2,000 patients who had coronary or heart disease, but normal blood pressure.”They were divided into three separate groups. One group got placebo or sugar pill. The other group got Amlodipine, which is a calcium channel blocker. And the third group got Enalapril, which is an ace inhibitor,” said Dr. Nissen.Amlodipine and Enalapril are both blood pressure drugs, but they work in different ways. This study showed that for protecting heart patients with normal blood pressure, Amlodipine got better results.Dr. Nissen said, “Administration of the drug Amlodipine, a blood pressure reducing drug, lowered their blood pressure by about five millimeters of mercury, and produced a 31 percent reduction in the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events.”Dr. Nissen said this is the first study to show that blood pressure medication can actually slow the build-up of plaque in the coronary artery. That build-up can lead to heart attack and death.Dr. Nissen said his findings are particularly impressive because almost all the patients in his study were also receiving other treatment for their heart disease during the study. But even though these other treatments were known as our best protection against heart attacks and other problems, it was the blood pressure drug that made the biggest difference in protecting heart patients.(Source: Capital news, Nov 2004)