Heart Health
For best results, take your medications as prescribed
If you want to prevent heart disease or its consequences, take your blood pressure, cholesterol, and heart medications as prescribed. Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School reviewed 25 large studies that looked at how faithfully people took their medications. Of the five studies conducted in healthy people taking medications to prevent heart disease, four found that taking cholesterol-lowering statins at least 80% of the time reduced heart risk 18% to 19%: one found that failing to take blood pressure medication as prescribed increased the risk of needing hospitalization for a heart attack by 15% (American Journal of Medicine, April 2013).
Twenty studies had been conducted in people who had already suffered a heart attack. Findings included the following:
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