Medication helps lower blood pressure quickly, typically within a few days. However, it may not be the best long-term treatment due to side effects. Medication can help manage high blood pressure while a person changes their underlying lifestyle that may be causing high blood pressure.
We now know most people have higher blood pressure in the daytime and blood pressure medications start to work within a few hours. And the effect usually lasts a full 24 hours.
“It may take a month to six weeks to bring your blood pressure down by slowly raising your medication doses,” Durso notes. “Lowering blood pressure too quickly can cause dizziness and increase the risk for falls.”
The most common side effects include tiredness, headache, dizziness, leg cramps, and upset stomach. Usually these side effects go away within the first few weeks of taking your medication.
Sometimes, resistant high blood pressure is simply caused by not having the right combination of medications at the right dosage. Your doctor may try changing one or more of your medications, or adjusting the dosage.
There is no cure for high blood pressure. But treatment can lower blood pressure that is too high. If it is mild, high blood pressure may sometimes be brought under control by making changes to a healthier lifestyle.
The doctor may increase the dose or change the medication, yet the blood pressure stays high. That's when a second drug may be added. Sometimes, patients with higher blood pressure need combination treatment -- even initially -- to bring it to a normal range. Combination treatment for hypertension is individualized.
Usually, blood pressure starts to rise a few hours before a person wakes up. It continues to rise during the day, peaking in midday. Blood pressure typically drops in the late afternoon and evening. Blood pressure is usually lower at night while sleeping.
Like all medicines, high blood pressure medicines can sometimes cause side effects. You may have common problems like headaches, dizziness, or an upset stomach. These can be bothersome to how you feel every day but often lessen after the first few weeks of taking the medicine.
Most of the time, blood pressure medicines do not cause side effects. Some people have mild side effects, including dizziness, headaches, swelling in the legs or feet, or stomach problems.
What causes high blood pressure? High blood pressure usually develops over time. It can happen because of unhealthy lifestyle choices, such as not getting enough regular physical activity. Certain health conditions, such as diabetes and having obesity, can also increase the risk for developing high blood pressure.
Moderate or severe headaches, anxiety, shortness of breath, nosebleeds, palpitations, or feeling of pulsations in the neck are some signs of high blood pressure. Often, these are late signs that high blood pressure has existed for some time, therefore annual checks are recommended for all adults.
Your doctor may want to check for things like an overactive thyroid, sleep apnea, kidney dysfunction, or adrenal gland disorders, which can elevate blood pressure. Timing is everything. Consider taking your medication at a different time of day than you do now.
Blood pressure medication may confer a larger benefit if taken at night, rather than in the morning. A 'robust' Spanish study of more than 19 000 patients found that taking the medication so that it works overnight cuts the risk of heart-related death and disease nearly in half.
Ten minutes of brisk or moderate walking three times a day
Exercise lowers blood pressure by reducing blood vessel stiffness so blood can flow more easily. The effects of exercise are most noticeable during and immediately after a workout. Lowered blood pressure can be most significant right after you work out.
Still, you can make lifestyle changes to bring your blood pressure down. Something as simple as keeping yourself hydrated by drinking six to eight glasses of water every day improves blood pressure. Water makes up 73% of the human heart,¹ so no other liquid is better at controlling blood pressure.
One of the best ways to see if your high blood pressure drugs are working is to check your blood pressure. Your doctor may want you to come into the office for checks. Or you may be asked to check your blood pressure at home.
Propranolol slows down your heart rate and makes it easier for your heart to pump blood around your body. It's usually prescribed for high blood pressure and other heart problems, but it can also help with the physical signs of anxiety, like sweating and shaking.
Many people who experience anxiety report a racing heart or higher blood pressure. By changing the way in which the body responds to anxiety, beta-blockers may reduce the intensity of the symptoms and lessen the physical effects.
Call 911 or emergency medical services if your blood pressure is 180/120 mm Hg or greater and you have chest pain, shortness of breath, or symptoms of stroke. Stroke symptoms include numbness or tingling, trouble speaking, or changes in vision.
Q. When I am monitoring my blood pressure, which number is most important — top, bottom, or both? A. While both numbers in a blood pressure reading are essential for diagnosing and treating high blood pressure, doctors primarily focus on the top number, also known as systolic pressure.
In other words, once blood pressure rises above normal, subtle but harmful brain changes can occur rather quickly—perhaps within a year or two. And those changes may be hard to reverse, even if blood pressure is nudged back into the normal range with treatment.
Sleeping on the left side is the best sleeping position for hypertension because it relieves blood pressure on blood vessels that return blood to the heart.
How they can cause fatigue: Blood-pressure medications may slow down the pumping action of the heart as well as depress the entire central nervous system, or, in the case of diuretics, deplete electrolytes that the body needs.