A healthy lifestyle may not be enough to lower your blood pressure. Your doctor may ask you to take medicines as well. There are different types of blood pressure medicines. Each one works in a different way to lower your blood pressure. Some blood pressure medicines may cause dizziness or drowsiness, especially when you first start taking them.

Not every medicine is right for everyone. For complete information, including possible side effects and how the medicines you take affect each other, talk with your doctor or pharmacist.

Over time, you may need more than one kind of medicine to manage your blood pressure. It may take a while before the medicine takes affect. Even when you reach your blood pressure goal, you may need to continue taking your medicine for a long time.

Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors

• Keep a hormone called angiotensin from being produced.
• Widen blood vessels and help your heart and blood vessels work better.
• Help protect your kidneys from the effects of high blood pressure and diabetes.

Angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs)

• Widen blood vessels like ACE inhibitors, but in a different way.

Alpha receptor blockers

• Reduce nerve impulses that tighten blood vessels.
• Reduce the effect of renin, an enzyme in the kidneys.
• Help blood vessels relax and widen.

Diuretics or "water pills"

• Help your body get rid of extra fluid and sodium.
• This helps lower blood pressure and makes it easier for your heart to pump blood through the body.

Beta blockers

• Block receptors that make your heart beat faster.
• This helps the heart beat more slowly and with less force, which lowers blood pressure.

Calcium channel blockers

• Block the flow of calcium into the muscle cells of the heart and blood vessels (too much calcium can make blood vessels squeeze shut).
• When calcium is blocked, blood vessels can relax and deliver more blood and oxygen to the body.

 

 

Other Tools

• My Medicine Schedule