Vasodilators For High Blood Pressure: Types, Side Effects, Drug Interactions
Conclusion In summary, vasodilators play a pivotal role in managing cardiovascular conditions, including hypertension, which is rapidly becoming a global health concern. By expanding the body’s blood vessels, these unique medications can improve blood flow and decrease the pressure exerted by the heart, thereby providing relief to numerous patients worldwide. Their applications are diverse, extending beyond hypertension to conditions like angina, heart failure, and even erectile dysfunction. However, these medications should be taken carefully and always under the supervision of a doctor due to the potent...
Source: The EMT Spot - July 27, 2023 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Michael Rotman, MD, FRCPC, PhD Tags: Blood Pressure Source Type: blogs

Angiotensin II Receptor Blockers (ARBs) For High Blood Pressure: Types, Side Effects, Drug Interactions
Conclusion Cardiovascular disease (CVD) has become a leading cause of death globally, necessitating the adoption of preventive measures, early detection, and effective management strategies. Hypertension, a significant risk factor for CVD, requires active management to mitigate associated risks. Angiotensin II Receptor Blockers (ARBs) have emerged as a favored choice among healthcare professionals due to their effectiveness and unique benefits. ARBs offer several advantages compared to other blood pressure medications. They effectively control blood pressure, protect vital organs such as the heart and kidneys, ...
Source: The EMT Spot - July 11, 2023 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Michael Rotman, MD, FRCPC, PhD Tags: Blood Pressure Source Type: blogs

EHRs Are Workarounds, Rerouting the Way Physicians Work
By HANS DUVEFELT IT GUY: Hey, Doc, don’t make up workarounds, use the EHR the way it was designed.DOCTOR: Listen, your whole EHR is a workaround itself – around the way medicine is practiced.– Hans Duvefelt, MD This was a tweet I posted a while ago. I expected it to either go viral among doctors or catch the ire of administrators and IT folks. Neither happened. So I’m back on my soap box: Imagine creating a computer simulation or video game that people expected to prepare them for or refine their skills in any given sport. Then, assume that this game altered the rules of the game – using a volley ball in...
Source: The Health Care Blog - August 16, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: Health Technology Medical Practice Physicians Primary Care EHRs Hans Duvefelt Source Type: blogs

Left ventricular remodeling
Left ventricular remodeling occurs in response to left ventricular stress and injury. It is progressive and occurs after large myocardial infarctions and dilated cardiomyopathy. Left ventricular volume increases and the normal elliptical shape becomes globular. Left ventricular remodeling is associated with changes at microscopic level which include myocyte hypertrophy, apoptosis and increased interstitial collagen deposition [1]. Left ventricular remodeling is a central pathophysiological mechanism in advancing heart failure. Reversal of remodeling with treatment is an important goal in the management of heart failure. ...
Source: Cardiophile MD - April 2, 2021 Category: Cardiology Authors: Prof. Dr. Johnson Francis Tags: Cardiology Source Type: blogs

COVID-19: Hidden Coinfections and Chain Reactions Parasitic Infectious Relationships within Us
By SIMON YU, MD, LT COL, USA (Ret) Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), opened up a new front in the Coronavirus War by saying we don’t just need to treat the acute disease, we need to treat the underlying conditions that make people more susceptible to serious disease progression. He focused on heart disease, and managing mitigating risk factors such as CVD, diabetes, hypertension and smoking in order to increase people’s odds for recovery. The initial focus has been pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), with risk factors including asthma, chr...
Source: The Health Care Blog - April 15, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: COVID-19 CDC chronic disease holistic care Pandemic SDoH Source Type: blogs

How does cardiovascular disease increase the risk of severe illness and death from COVID-19?
Based on reports from China, we know that most COVID-19 patients (about 80%) will develop mild flulike symptoms, including fever, dry cough, and body aches that can be managed at home. 20% will develop more serious symptoms, such as pneumonia requiring hospitalization, with about a quarter of these requiring ICU-level care. Initial reports focused on the respiratory effects of COVID-19, such as pneumonia and difficulty breathing. But more recent literature has described serious cardiovascular complications occurring in about 10% to 20% of hospitalized patients. Someone with pre-existing heart disease who becomes ill with C...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - April 2, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Dara K. Lee Lewis, MD Tags: Health Heart Health Hypertension and Stroke Infectious diseases Source Type: blogs

Are polypills and population-based treatment the next big things?
Cardiovascular disease (CVD), such as heart attack and stroke, is a leading cause of death and disability in the US. High blood pressure and high cholesterol are major risk factors for CVD, and even though they are quite common and highly treatable, they tend to be undertreated. This is especially true among those who are poor or members of a minority. It’s estimated that thousands of lives could be saved each year if more people with high blood pressure and high cholesterol received treatment for these conditions. The appeal of the polypill One reason that high blood pressure and high cholesterol are poorly treated is t...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - January 13, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Robert H. Shmerling, MD Tags: Drugs and Supplements Health Heart Health Hypertension and Stroke Source Type: blogs

MKSAP: 38-year-old woman with primary membranous glomerulopathy
Test your medicine knowledge with the  MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians. A 38-year-old woman is evaluated during a follow-up visit for primary membranous glomerulopathy. Diagnosis was made by kidney biopsy 4 months ago, and she was found to be positive for anti–phospholipase A2 receptor (PLA2R) antibodies. Medications are furosemide, losartan, and simvastatin. […]Find jobs at  Careers by KevinMD.com.  Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now.  Learn more. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - November 16, 2019 Category: General Medicine Authors: < span itemprop="author" > < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/mksap" rel="tag" > mksap < /a > < /span > Tags: Conditions Nephrology renal cell renal cell carcinoma Source Type: blogs

What should you do if your blood pressure medication has been recalled?
Over the past several months, you may have heard that the FDA has recalled certain lots of angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB) medications due to the presence of impurities. These contaminants — nitrosamine impurities — may occur as a byproduct of the manufacturing process. They include N-Nitrosodiethylamine (NDEA) and N-Nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), which can potentially cause cancer. These substances are found in the environment as well in meats, dairy products, and water, but their presence in medications is not acceptable. Therefore, the FDA sets acceptable safety limits on the presence of these impurities in drug...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - August 5, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: James Yeh, MD, MPH Tags: Drugs and Supplements Health Hypertension and Stroke Source Type: blogs

Landmark Results Achieved in Aging and Chronic Disease: Danish Group Extends Disease-free Life by 8 Years
By WILLIAM H. BESTERMANN JR., MD New Scientific Breakthroughs Can Provide a Longer Healthier Life Twenty-one years of follow-up comparing usual care with a protocol-driven team-based intervention in diabetes proved that healthy life in humans can be prolonged by 8 years. These results were achieved at a lower per patient per year cost. Aging researchers have been confident that we will soon be able to prolong healthy life. This landmark study shows this ambitious goal can be achieved now with lifestyle intervention and a few highly effective proven medications. These medications interfere with the core molecular biol...
Source: The Health Care Blog - July 11, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: Medical Practice Patients aging chronic disease Denmark Diabetes William Bestermann Source Type: blogs

Potassium and Magnesium: how low is too low?
Conclusion: Adverse events in patients with hypoK were rare and not directly related to the K level.  But just one case of death is enough to affect patient management.Case continued:The patient felt better after treatment, including K supplementation, and wanted to go home.  She was told that this was a very bad idea and that she could die.Shortly thereafter, she became unresponsive and was found to be in ventricular fibrillation.She was defibrillated.All serial troponins were negative.Learning Point:Hypokalemia with associated ECG abnormalities is very dangerous.Here is a previous case of ventricular fibri...
Source: Dr. Smith's ECG Blog - May 14, 2019 Category: Cardiology Authors: Steve Smith Source Type: blogs

Live the Wheat Belly lifestyle, get off prescription medications
Take a look at the list of medications people have been able to stop by following the Wheat Belly lifestyle. These represent medications prescribed by doctors to, in effect, “treat” the consequences of consuming wheat and grains. They prescribe drugs to treat inflammation, swelling, skin rashes, gastrointestinal irritation, high blood sugars, airway allergy, joint pain, high blood pressure, leg edema and other abnormal effects caused by wheat and grains. The list includes anti-inflammatory and pain medication, acid reflux drugs, injectable and oral drugs for diabetes, numerous anti-hypertensive agents, asthma i...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - October 27, 2018 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: News & Updates autoimmune blood sugar bowel flora cholesterol Gliadin gluten-free grain-free grains Inflammation undoctored Weight Loss wheat belly Source Type: blogs

MKSAP: 49-year-old man with a family history of type 2 diabetes mellitus
Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians. A 49-year-old man seeks advice on ways to prevent the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus because of a strong family history (mother, sister, and brother) of the disease. History is significant for hypertension, for which he takes losartan and amlodipine in the morning. On physical examination, temperature is 37.2 °C (99.0 °F), blood pressure is 125/84 mm Hg, pulse rate is 80/min, and respiration rate is 16/min. BMI is 22. There is no S4 gallop. Laboratory studies show a fasting plasma glucose level of 10...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - October 14, 2017 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/mksap" rel="tag" > mksap < /a > Tags: Conditions Cardiology Diabetes Endocrinology Source Type: blogs

Enthusiasm for Rapamycin and Polypills in the Search for Ways to Slow Aging
The author of this paper is one of the more outspoken advocates in the research community when it comes to mTOR and rapamycin as a path to slowing the progression of aging. He keeps up quite the output of position papers, such as this one, which calls for immediate human trials of polypills made up of rapamycin and a brace of other drugs broadly used in treatment of age-related conditions, such as statins and metformin. I have to think that the evidence to date suggests this will be less effective than hoped, while still very plausibly being better than doing nothing, even considering the side-effects of the drugs involved...
Source: Fight Aging! - June 21, 2017 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs

MKSAP: 51-year-old man with newly diagnosed hypertension and diabetes mellitus
Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians. A 51-year-old man is evaluated during a follow-up visit for management of newly diagnosed hypertension and diabetes mellitus. He has started a program of lifestyle modification for his diabetes but has not yet started antihypertensive therapy. He is currently taking no medications. On physical examination, blood pressure is 148/92 mm Hg, and pulse rate is 76/min. BMI is 33. The remainder of the examination is unremarkable. Laboratory studies show a serum creatinine level of 1.5 mg/dL (132.6 µmol/L) (estimated g...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - October 1, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/mksap" rel="tag" > mksap < /a > Tags: Conditions Diabetes Heart Source Type: blogs