Blood pressure lowering drugs also lower the risk for kidney disease among diabetics. Even among patients without high blood pressure, the reduction of kidney risk is 20% when a combination of two drugs is taken. What are these two drugs, you asked? And how did they come to this conclusion? Read on.

They analyzed the data from a study called ADVANCE. The number of type 2 diabetics who participated in this study was 11,140. They divided these patients into two groups. One group was given a combination of two blood pressure-lowering drugs.

The two drugs received were the ACE or angiotensin-converting enzyme (inhibitor perindopril) and the indapamide which is a diuretic drug. How about the second group? Well, they were given inactive placebos. Most of the participants had hypertension except for 20% whose blood pressure was normal with a reading of less than 130/80.

Dr. Vlado Perkovic, MBBS, PhD of Sydney, Australia’s The George Institute for International Health said that the results of the study revealed that reducing the blood pressure through the diuretic/ ACE inhibitor combination prevents kidney disease. It even reversed the early symptoms of kidney disease. This happened regardless of whether the patient had hypertension or not.

The researchers followed up these patients so they could compare the kidney disease events from the least of the condition like a drop in the functioning of the kidney all the way to the failure of the kidney itself. What do you think they found out four years later?

The patients who received the combination of diuretic/ACE inhibitor had considerably lower rate of the kidney disease than the group that received the placebo. The former had a 21% lower rate of kidney problems than the latter group.

And listen to this. Those who had the early symptoms of kidney disease related to diabetes had their kidney functioning going back to normal while they were treated with the drugs. Even the patients who did not have high blood pressure who were given the combination drugs reduced the events of kidney problem.

We can learn as much as we can about this issue. For instance, we know that often hypertension appears with some other health problems like diabetes, previous stroke, chronic kidney disease, heart failure, thickened or enlarged left chamber of the heart, prior heart attack and a high risk for coronary heart disease.

Since high blood pressure makes one have a higher risk to develop these conditions, it is important to get a more aggressive treatment approach. This will reduce the risk for the complications that may develop. These complications could be life-threatening.

This is why the doctor may recommend high blood pressure medications and additional medications for hypertension. If one is experiencing chest pains, the doctor may even recommend a beta blocker. Not only can this lower the blood pressure but will also prevent chest pains. In addition, it will reduce the heart rate as well as lower the risk of death.

How about if both diabetes and hypertension are present? Well, taking a diuretic and an ACE inhibitor can lower the risk of heart attack and stroke. And as shown by the research, this has an added bonus of reducing the risk for kidney disease.

Just remember that it takes time to find the right combination and dose of medications for hypertension. It is quite a challenge to reach the goal so one has to be patient. It is wise though to keep trying because high blood pressure can bring on complications in the forms of heart attack, heart and kidney failure. Believe it or not, sometimes vision loss and dementia could be the result.

You can tell by now that it is not easy to treat hypertension. Sometimes, despite three medications the blood pressure refuses to go down. They have a name for this and it is called resistant hypertension. Those who have controlled blood pressure and are taking four medications to do so, fall under this group as well.

Do not despair though if you find yourself in this group for this does not mean the blood pressure will never go down. The doctor and you will try to find out what is causing this and in so doing can lead to a more effective treatment. The important thing to do is not to give up until you have reached the goal that both you and your doctor have set.

There is some good news. Adopting a healthier lifestyle of eating right and moving more in combination with the medication can help control the blood pressure. You can monitor it at home or in drugstores which usually have sphygmomanometer. This will help the doctor know what medication and dose are working and change to a more effective one when necessary.

The research has some drawbacks. For one thing, the analysis was done on a previous clinical trial so more research is needed. Just the same, it appears that there should be consideration made on giving type 2 diabetics anti-hypertensive treatment whether or not they have high blood pressure.

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