Medications Archive

Doctors once hesitated to prescribe medication until a patient's blood pressure reached 160/100. Anything below that level was deemed "mild hypertension" and not considered dangerous, so many doctors worried that the drugs' potential side effects might outweigh their benefits. These perceptions turned out to be false. Research has firmly established the value of treating stage 1 hypertension (140/90 to 159/99 mm Hg) with drugs, if necessary.

For those with diabetes or kidney disease, medications may be necessary at pressures as low as 130/80. And today, blood pressure can be controlled with lower doses of medications, meaning there is less chance of side effects.

Task force offers recommendations for women and guidance on dosage.

Aspirin was once used mainly to relieve pain, ease fever, and get rid of hangovers. Today it's best known for its ability to protect hearts. This hundred-year-old drug is a mainstay for treating heart attacks, and it also helps ward off heart attacks and the most common kind of stroke. But limited evidence on aspirin's preventive effects has made it difficult for experts to give encompassing recommendations about who benefits from daily aspirin and how much to take. One consequence of this uncertainty is public confusion about aspirin. Some of the 50 million Americans who take aspirin for their hearts' sake shouldn't be taking it; others who need aspirin aren't taking it.

Recent reports have women wondering if they should stop taking this widely prescribed osteoporosis drug.

In 1995, the FDA approved alendronate (Fosamax) for the treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis, a bone-weakening condition that affects more than eight million women and causes 1.5 million fractures each year in the United States. Fosamax increases bone mineral density and significantly reduces the risk of spine, hip, and wrist fractures in women with osteoporosis and in those with low bone density that doesn't meet the criteria for osteoporosis (a condition called osteopenia).