Heart Medications
The development of these medications have helped dramatically decrease death rates from cardiovascular disease in the United States and other developed countries.
Heart Medications Articles
People who take drugs to lower blood pressure and cholesterol still need to exercise regularly and strive for a healthy body weight to avoid heart disease. But many may let those healthy habits slide after starting prescription heart medications.
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Several new cardiology technologies are gaining traction, including digital stethoscopes, handheld ultrasound devices, and a cuffless blood pressure monitor. Designed for use with smartphones or tablets, they hold the promise of faster, non-invasive diagnoses of various heart-related conditions. A lab-on-a-chip may help researchers find better anti-clotting medications, and a drug that lowers stubbornly high cholesterol with just two injections per year is being tested.
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Drugs that discourage blood clots (commonly called blood thinners) don’t actually make the blood less viscous. The two main types of these drugs, anticoagulants and antiplatelet drugs, interfere with different blood components involved in clot formation. Anticoagulants treat blood clots in the legs and lungs and are also prescribed to people with atrial fibrillation. Antiplatelet drugs are used to prevent heart attacks and strokes and to treat people who receive stents.
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For 50 years, warfarin was the only choice for people who needed to take an oral anticoagulant (blood thinner). New drugs called direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) are just as effective as warfarin in preventing strokes in people with atrial fibrillation and normal heart valves.
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New diabetes medications can help individuals at high risk for a stroke or heart attack. The benefit is primarily for people who have had a heart attack or stroke in the past or are at very high risk because of other factors. While these medications can benefit some individuals, they do have a number of side effects, are costly, and are not recommended for most people with diabetes.
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Angina pectoris is often defined as chest pain due to an inadequate supply of oxygen to the heart muscle. But most people describe the feeling as a sense of heaviness or pressure. It can also cause discomfort in the neck, jaw, and shoulders. Anything that increases blood flow to the heart, including exercise or periods of intense emotion, can trigger angina. Unstable angina (which is a medical emergency) occurs during rest or slight exertion. A number of medications can help ease angina.
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People who take beta blockers (which lower the heart rate and blood pressure) may not be able to reach their target heart rate during exercise. Instead, they can use the perceived exertion scale to assess how hard they’re exercising.
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People living in the West South Central states (such as Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana) are much less likely to be prescribed a high-intensity statin after a heart attack than people living in New England.
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New guidelines for managing atrial fibrillation (afib) now advise most people to take novel oral anticoagulant drugs rather than warfarin to prevent a stroke. Aspirin is no longer recommended for stroke prevention for afib. Another change highlights the benefits of weight loss, which can reduce afib episodes and keep the condition from worsening. The guidelines also more strongly recommend a procedure called ablation (which destroys faulty electric pathways in the heart) for people with afib symptoms who also have systolic heart failure.
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An experimental nasal spray shows promise for quickly treating an abnormally fast heart rhythm known as supraventricular tachycardia.
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