|
|
|
Don't Suffer Needlessly From Chronic Pain
As a chronic pain sufferer myself, being diagnosed with a herniated disc in my lower back, along with bone disc degenerative disease, I have learned a lot about how chronic pain is treated, or I should say undertreated. It's a sad fact for a...
How Stressed Out Are You?
Stress, America’s #1 health problem, is a leading cause of major illness. Heart disease, high blood pressure, and depression are just some of the harmful effects of stress. Research has shown that releasing stress and learning how to relax promotes...
How to Avoid Dangerous Drug-Herb Interactions, Part 1
Negative drug-herb interactions (side effects as the result of taking drugs and herbs at the same time) have been over-hyped because of fear, lack of knowledge and sheer speculation. Although there are some negative interactions, research has also...
Noise Pollution Can Hurt You
Car alarms, screeching subway cars, loud bars and barking dogs are only a few of the annoyances that can harass people on a daily basis. In a large metropolitan city, these things are the norm and are actually harmful to your ears.
If you are...
Prevention is Better than Cure
Scientists at Imperial College, London, point the way to stopping malaria at its source: the mosquito Malaria remains one of the world's most intransigent diseases, causing suffering and posing serious threats to development in some of the world's...
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Blood Pressure Medications: A Concise Guide
High blood pressure is unfortunately something that most people
have to deal with as they age. This is especially true for the
average person in the western part of the world. The national
average for high blood pressure is approximately 24% in the
United States with most other Western countries within close
proximity of that number.
Medication is the most frequent form of treatment outside of
individual lifestyle choices. However, there are a wide variety
of drug types used to treat high blood pressure and they each
approach the problem in a unique fashion. A physician will
prescribe the type of drug best suited for the needs of the
individual patient.
DIURETICS
A diuretic is a medication that reduces the amount of water and
sodium in the blood. The reduction in water helps to reduce the
overall pressure on the walls of the blood vessels and as a
result lower the overall blood pressure. A diuretic is usually
prescribed in addition to another type of medication as opposed
to being used a sole treatment by itself. Diuretics are often
called "water pills" and the physician may refer to them as such.
BETA BLOCKERS
Beta blocks work to reduce the heart rate and lower the blood
pressure by inhibiting the bodies "fight / flight" response.
Essentially a beta-blocker blocks the ability of epinephrine and
norepinephrine to stimulate the sympathetic nervous system. This
action prevents the increased heart rate and high blood
pressure, which is a direct result of that stimulation. The
beta-blockers prescribed for high blood pressure have a calming
effect and give the person a greater tolerance for stress.
ACE INHIBITORS
Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors, or ACE Inhibitors, as
they are commonly known helped to reduce blood pressure by
preventing the hormone Angiotensin II from forming. Angiontensin
II normally constricts the blood vessels as well as acting on
the brain to increase the need for salt and hydration.
ANGIOTENSIN ANTAGONIST
Angiontensin antagonists target the same hormone as ACE
inhibitors, described above. However, rather than inhibiting the
production of
Angiotensin II it blocks its effect on the cells
of the heart and blood vessels. These medications are also
referred to as ARB's, which stands for angiotensin receptor
blockers. This is a newer type of medication which helps to
modulate the renin-angiotensin system which has a big role in
maintaining the bodies overall blood pressure and the volume of
blood in the body.
CALCIUM CHANNEL BLOCKERS
This class of medications reduce the overall level of calcium in
the heart which in turn reduces the blood pressure since the
level of calcium dictates the force with which the heart pumps
blood. Individuals with a weak heart (cardiomyopathy) are
advised to not take a calcium channel blocker.
ALPHA BLOCKERS
Alpha-blockers bring blood pressure lower by limiting the nerve
impulses sent to the blood vessels, which allows the blood to
pass more freely. Whereas the beta-blockers affect the heart to
decrease blood pressure, the Alpha-blockers affect the blood
vessels.
ALPHA-BETA BLOCKERS
The Alpha-Beta class of drugs combines the effects of both the
Alpha-blockers and the Beta-blockers, and thereby bring about
lower blood pressure. See the descriptions for both to
understand how they work.
NERVOUS SYSTEM INHIBITORS
Nervous system inhibitors work at the level of the brain as
opposed to the circulatory system. Essentially this class of
drugs reduces the nerve impulses sent the blood vessels thereby
allowing them to be more relaxed which results in lower blood
pressure.
VASODILATORS
A vasodilator works similar to many of the other drugs by
relaxing the blood vessels and as a result lowering blood
vessels. However, these medicines do not target the hormones or
the heart directly. There are a large variety of these types of
drugs and they act in different ways.
About the author:
Ray Kelly is an Exercise Scientist with 15 years experience in
the health and fitness industry. Find out more about Blood
Pressure at: Blood Pressure and Weight Loss or
http://www.free-online-health.com
|
|
|
|
|
| National Library of Medicine - National Institutes of Health |
| Part of the National Institutes of Health, the National Library of Medicine offers access to health information for consumer, patient, and physicians ... |
| www.nlm.nih.gov |
|
| Health and Medical Information produced by doctors - MedicineNet.com |
| Doctor-produced health and medical information written for you to make informed decisions about your health concerns. |
| www.medicinenet.com |
|
| Medicine in the Yahoo! Directory |
| Collection of sites for health professionals, with sections on specific disciplines, organizations, continuing education, conferences, publications, ... |
| dir.yahoo.com |
|
| MedlinePlus Health Information from the National Library of Medicine |
| Health information from the National Library of Medicine. Easy access to Medline and Health topics, medical dictionaries, directories and publications. |
| medlineplus.gov |
|
| Medicine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
| Medicine is a branch of health science and the sector of public life ... The practice of medicine combines both science as the evidence base and art in the ... |
| en.wikipedia.org |
|
| Journal Home - Nature Medicine |
| Nature Medicine has a vacancy for a Locum Assistant Editor for six months. The position involves working in all aspects of the editorial process, ... |
| www.nature.com |
|
| The New England Journal of Medicine: Research & Review Articles on ... |
| The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) is a weekly general medical journal that publishes new medical research findings, review articles, and editorial ... |
| content.nejm.org |
|
| eMedicine Clinical Knowledge Base |
| eMedicine features up-to-date, searchable, peer-reviewed medical journals, online physician reference textbooks, and a full-text article database in 62 ... |
| www.emedicine.com |
|
| Open Directory - Health: Medicine |
| the entire directory, only in Health/Medicine. Top: Health: Medicine (11429). Description · Medical Specialties (4888); Surgery (2265) ... |
| dmoz.org |
|
| the www virtual library biosciences medicine |
| www.ohsu.edu/cliniweb/wwwvl/ - Similar pages |
|
|
| Medicine - home |
| Bimonthly journal covering the latest results in clinical investigation relevant to hospital and office practice. |
| www.md-journal.com |
|
| Institute of Medicine |
| The Institute of Medicine serves as adviser to the nation to improve health. |
| www.iom.edu |
|
| ScienceDaily: Health & Medicine News |
| Medical Research News. Health news on everything from cancer to nutrition. Full-text, images, updated daily. |
| www.sciencedaily.com |
|
| Google Directory - Health > Medicine |
| Search only in Medicine Search the Web. Medicine. Health > Medicine, Go to Directory Home. Categories. Alternative Medicine (6308) Basic Sciences (66) ... |
| www.google.com |
|
| the world wide web virtual library biosciences medicine |
| www.mcb.harvard.edu/biopages/medicine.html - Similar pages |
|
|
| PLoS Medicine - A Peer-Reviewed Open-Access Journal |
| PLoS Medicine is a peer-reviewed, international, open-access journal published ... Every issue of PLoS Medicine contains a selection of readers' responses. ... |
| medicine.plosjournals.org |
|
| Medicine On-Line - Medicine Online -The International Medical Journal |
| Medicine Online - independent and peer reviewed journal published by Priory Medical Journals - priory.com. |
| www.priory.com |
|
| Entrez PubMed |
| PubMed is a service of the US National Library of Medicine that includes over 16 million citations from MEDLINE and other life science journals for ... |
| www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov |
|
| Stanford University School of Medicine |
| Home Page of the Stanford University School of Medicine. |
| med.stanford.edu |
|
| Medicine OnLine |
| Meds.com offers medical information and education on cancer (lung cancer, colon cancer, breast cancer, leukemia) and HIV / AIDS for patients, ... |
| www.meds.com |
|
|