After the blood pressure rises, for the health of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, most patients with hypertension will use drug treatment.
However, hypertension, as one of the most common chronic diseases in the elderly, often does not occur independently, and is accompanied by various complications, resulting in many patients with hypertension taking very complicated medication, and patients have many questions when taking medicine.
For example, why did I take antihypertensive drugs, but my blood pressure still couldn't come down? Why does taking medicine work at first, but then the blood pressure rises again? Am I taking the wrong medicine, or have I become resistant after taking the medicine for a while?
"Ask the doctor" to answer you one by one.
Why are medications that do not work to lower blood pressure?
After taking the medicine, the blood pressure still cannot be lowered, which may be secondary hypertension.
"Secondary hypertension" refers to high blood pressure caused by certain specific causes, and the biggest feature is that it is impossible to lower blood pressure through antihypertensive drugs. Antihypertensive drugs often start from the pathological mechanism of primary hypertension to lower blood pressure, but do not solve these diseases that cause hypertension, so blood pressure will not come down.
What conditions can cause secondary hypertension?
(1) Diabetic complications (diabetic nephropathy).
Diabetes can damage the kidney filtration system, leading to high blood pressure.
(2) Thyroid disease.
Hypothyroidism: The thyroid gland's inability to produce adequate thyroid hormones may cause high blood pressure.
Hyperthyroidism: The parathyroid glands regulate calcium and phosphorus levels in the body. If the gland secretes excessive amounts of parathyroid hormone, the calcium content in the blood rises, which in turn leads to an increase in blood pressure.
(3) Sleep apnea syndrome.
Patients with sleep apnea syndrome have symptoms of snoring, which means poor breathing during sleep and lack of oxygen in the body. In order to compensate for this state, the human body will make the sympathetic nervous system excited, speed up the heart rhythm, constrict the blood vessels to improve the efficiency of oxygen transport, and the heart rhythm is accelerated, and the whole body vasoconstriction will directly raise blood pressure.
(4) Cervical hypertension
There are main roads of human nerves in and around the lumen of the cervical spine. Problems in the cervical spine, such as bulging discs, bone hyperplasia, and misalignment, cause these nerves to be squeezed, stimulated, and even sterile inflammation. This can excite the sympathetic nervous system, causing a rapid heart rate or spasms of arterioles throughout the body, and blood pressure will continue to soar.
The above common secondary hypertension, only by actively treating these diseases, can alleviate the symptoms of hypertension, simply taking antihypertensive drugs is a symptom but not a cure, it is difficult to lower blood pressure.
Why do antihypertensive drugs fail?
Why does taking medicine work at first, but then the blood pressure rises again?
The main reasons are natural aging of blood vessels and poor lifestyle control.
(1) Aging of blood vessels
With the increase of age, the organ function of hypertensive patients will continue to deteriorate, the blood vessels will gradually harden, and the blood pressure will naturally increase.
If the drug is still taken according to the previous dose and does not pay attention to lifestyle, the natural increase in blood pressure will exceed the rate of the drug's antihypertensive rate. This will cause the problem of blood pressure rising on the whole.
(2) Poor lifestyle control
Some patients are prone to fall into the misunderstanding of relying too much on drugs, thinking that since they are taking medicines, blood pressure must be controlled, and they do not have to pay so much attention to diet and life.
Blood pressure in such patients can be temporarily lowered by antihypertensive drugs. However, after a period of time, the blood pressure raised by these bad lifestyle habits will exceed the blood pressure that can be lowered by antihypertensive drugs, causing blood pressure to exceed the standard again.
Therefore, even if patients with hypertension start drug treatment, they cannot ignore the control of their lifestyle. Especially for older patients, while maintaining a healthy lifestyle, they should see a doctor regularly and adjust their medication according to their blood pressure.
Is there really drug resistance?
Will there be drug resistance when taking a blood pressure medication for a long time?
(1) There is no problem of drug resistance
Long-term eating the same antihypertensive drug, in fact, will not produce drug resistance, because "drug resistance" refers to microorganisms, parasites and other drugs to reduce the response to drugs. In other words, the therapeutic effect of the drug is not as obvious as before. In the treatment of hypertension, bacteria, viruses or anything are involved, so there is no drug resistance.
(2) It is more recommended for patients with hypertension to use compound preparations and combined medications
But the amplitude of drug hypotension for each mechanism of action is limited. Once there are too many factors that cause blood pressure to rise in the body, taking a single type of antihypertensive drugs often fails to achieve blood pressure standards. At this time, it is necessary to combine 2 or more drugs, and clinical data show that about 70% of patients with hypertension need to be combined to make the blood pressure reach the standard.
The combination regimen pays attention to the complementarity of mechanisms of action, and there are 4 most common clinical methods, namely:
Horizons combined with β receptor blockers
The horizon class is combined with the pry class or the satan class
Flats combined with diuretics
Pry or sartans combined with diuretics
It is also possible to choose a three-in-one compound formulation as needed. However, it should be noted that whether it is a change of medicine or an addition, it must be replaced or increased or decreased according to your condition under the guidance of a doctor.