Health warning issued for patients taking blood pressure medication

Researchers have made a vital discovery that could change the medical routine of millions of people around the world.

Doctors monitoring the affect of blood-lowering medication on patients with type 2 diabetes found that the common medication could be doing more harm than good.

Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes and many sufferers take medication to lower their blood pressure.

The doctors working on the study found that despite previous thinking, antihypertensive medication can increase the risk of cardiovascular death in type 2 diabetes patients with blood pressure under 140 mm/Hg.

Many diabetes patients around the world are prescribed medication to help lower their blood pressure as the disease often causes sufferers to have particularly high blood pressure.

Now though, the researchers say it is likely putting them at risk of a stroke, heart disease, or other cardiovascular problems.

Doctor Mattias Brunström from the Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine at Umeå University in Sweden, who worked on the study, says it’s important to take his team’s discovery into account when treating blood pressure issues in diabetes sufferers, but warns that it’s vital for diabetes patients and doctors to continue to monitor the issue.

“In practice, it is important to remember that undertreatment of high blood pressure is a bigger problem than overtreatment,” Dr Brunström said.

The research team is hoping their discovery will be used when the clinical guidelines for diabetes patients with high blood pressure are reviewed next year.

“It has been discussed to recommend even lower blood pressure levels for people with diabetes – maybe as low as 130,” says Dr Brunström.

“We are hoping that our study, which shows potential risks of such aggressive blood pressure-lowering treatment, will come to influence these guidelines.”

Do you anyone you know suffer from type 2 diabetes? Do you take medication to lower your blood pressure?