Antihypertensive drugs are good helpers to help hypertension patients control blood pressure and avoid cardiovascular and cerebrovascular complications. There are several types of commonly used antihypertensive drugs. In our country, one of them is the most widely used, called calcium channel blocker, or CCB for short. Since most of these drugs end with [dipine], they are also called [dipine antihypertensive drugs], such as nifedipine, amlodipine, levamlodipine, nimodipine, nitrendipine, felodipine, etc.
Why is the horizon widely used?
This is related to the characteristics of drugs.
These drugs rely on calcium ions to play a antihypertensive role.
Myocardial contraction and vasoconstriction depend on calcium ions entering myocardial cells and vascular smooth muscle cells. Vasoconstriction and myocardial cell contraction require a large amount of calcium ions entering cells, just like gasoline needed by cars.
CCB drugs can prevent calcium ions from entering cells, just like restricting gasoline from entering engines, causing vasoconstriction to weaken, dilating blood vessels and having the effect of lowering blood pressure.
- At the same time of dilating blood vessels, CCB antihypertensive drugs can also improve blood supply to myocardium, so they are very suitable for people with hypertension and angina pectoris. It does not affect glycolipid metabolism, so it is also suitable for patients with hypertension and diabetes. Due to vasodilation, it can also improve renal blood flow and is conducive to protecting the kidney. It is suitable for hypertensive patients with positive urinary protein when taken simultaneously with ARB antihypertensive drugs (such as valsartan, etc.). It has no effect on pregnant women and fetuses and is one of the few antihypertensive drugs available during pregnancy. Among many dipine drugs, nimodipine has high selectivity to brain tissue receptors and is easy to penetrate the blood-brain barrier, which is more suitable for headache hypertension patients accompanied by cerebral vasospasm and cerebral blood supply insufficiency.
Due to these characteristics, CCB antihypertensive drugs have become the most widely used drugs.
Do these antihypertensive drugs have any side effects?
Of course, any drug will have side effects while producing therapeutic effects, and CCB is no exception.
In particular, CCB short-acting preparations, because the blood pressure drops rapidly, the body will feel the rapid drop of blood pressure while reflexively increasing the heart rate, causing tachycardia.
Also due to the rapid expansion of blood vessels, blushing and headache may occur, and a few patients may be accompanied by nausea and vomiting.
Another common side effect is edema of lower limbs, which is related to CCB dilating blood vessels at the end of lower limbs. Edema can disappear quickly after stopping taking drugs.
In a few patients, gingival swelling and pain will also occur, which can be effectively relieved by thorough oral examination and timely treatment before medication.
How to relieve side effects?
Although there are side effects, it is not that such drugs are not good and cannot be taken.
First of all, the side effects are not common to all people who take the medicine. The side effects are still found in a few people. If the therapeutic effect on most people is not as large as the side effects, then the medicine will not be on the market at all.
Even if side effects occur, there are ways to avoid them.
It is not difficult to see that the side effects mentioned above are all related to the rapid dilation of blood vessels by CCB. Taking long-acting or sustained-release CCB preparations (such as sustained-release tablets and controlled-release tablets) will delay the speed of dilation of blood vessels, prolong the time of lowering blood pressure, and greatly avoid the occurrence of these side effects.
In addition, combined use of other antihypertensive drugs can also effectively relieve side effects and enhance antihypertensive effect.
- Taking it together with receptor blockers can offset the side effects of slow heart rate of the latter. When combined with diuretics, it is beneficial to relieve the side effects of lower limb edema. Combined Use with ARB to Improve Renal Function in Hypertensive Patients; Combined use with ACEI is helpful to prevent the deterioration of cardiac function in hypertension patients.
The problem that needs to be paid attention to is: do not take two calcium antagonists at the same time, which cannot enhance the antihypertensive effect but may lead to increased toxic and side effects.
Antihypertensive drugs can effectively maintain the health status of hypertension patients. The premise of using this helper well is: listen to the opinions of professional doctors, and do not take drugs or stop taking drugs at will.
Reasonable use of drugs with the help of doctors can avoid greater damage caused by hypertension.