Blood pressure drugs should be taken at night

10 October, 2012

Thousands of men and women suffer from uncontrolled blood pressure. Many have to resort to medication as well as lifestyle changes to keep their blood pressure under prescribed limits. Latest research suggests that taking pills for blood pressure improves the ability to control blood pressure.

IF BLOOD pressure is not kept under control it can lead to paralysis, heart failure, and heart attack. And most such attacks take place in early morning hours. The thickening of platelets, blood pressure and pulse - all are higher in mornings. Thus, keeping morning blood pressure under control decreases cardiovascular mortality.

As per a study published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, when patients having chronic kidney disease and high blood pressure took at least one anti-hypertensive drug before sleeping, it improved blood pressure control significantly - resulting in a concurrent decrease in risk for cardiovascular complications.

The study incorporated 661 patients having chronic kidney disease. They were randomly assigned either to take all prescribed anti-blood pressure drugs on awakening or to take at least one of them at bedtime. The progress of these patients was recorded for an average of 5.4 years. For each 5 mmHg decrease in average sleep-time systolic upper blood pressure, there was a reduction of 14 per cent in the risk for cardiovascular events.