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Main > Specialty Areas > Cardiology >
Treatment of Hypertension
There is no specific treatment for "Primary Hypertension" or "Essential Hypertension", but blood pressure can be lowered with proper treatment. The goal of lowering the blood pressure is to prevent heart disease and other complications of hypertension. In secondary hypertension, the factors that is responsible for the hypertension is to be treated in addition to the hypertension itself. Proper treatment of the underlying disorder in turn helps to cure the Secondary Hypertension.
Numerous drugs have been developed to treat hypertension. The choice of medication will depend on the stage of hypertension, side effects, other medical conditions the patient may have, and other medicines the patient is taking.
Physicians recommend taking different antihypertensive medications at different stages of hypertension. Antihypertensive medicines fall into several classes of drugs, such as:
Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACE inhibitors) ACE inhibitors block the production of substances that constrict blood vessels.
Alpha-blockers Alpha-blockers act on the nervous system to dilate arteries and reduce the force of the heart's contractions.
Beta-blockers - Beta-blockers lower blood pressure by acting on the nervous system to slow the heart rate and reduce the force of the heart's contraction.
Alpha-beta blockers Alpha-beta blockers combine the actions of alpha and beta blockers.
Calcium channel blockers - Calcium channel blockers block the entry of calcium into muscle cells in artery walls.
Centrally acting agonists - Centrally acting agonists also act on the nervous system to relax arteries and slow the heart rate.
Diuretics - Diuretics help the kidneys eliminate excess salt and water from the body's tissues and the blood.
Vasodilators - Vasodilators act directly on arteries to relax their walls so blood can move more easily through them.
Physicians prefer diuretics and beta-blockers as the first line of treatment for hypertension because these usually have no complications or significant side-effects.
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Diabetes Containment To contain diabetes, it pays to do the following:
Pay attention to your diet - avoid sugar as well as saturated fats in any form.
Regular exercise is an important treatment for both types of diabetes.
Weight loss can also help to reverse insulin resistance and lower blood glucose if a person is overweight.
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Levothyroxine Levothyroxine is a pure synthetic form of T4 hormone that is made in a laboratory to be an exact replacement for the T4 that the human thyroid gland normally secretes. It comes in multiple strengths, which means that an appropriate dosage can almost always be found for each patient. |
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