Diuretics

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Anchor lead: Diuretics may be your best bet when it comes to managing high blood pressure, Elizabeth Tracey reports

A study of close to five million people who were taking medication for high blood pressure for the first time shows that a class of medicines called thiazide diuretics is most likely best for most. Greg Prokopowicz, a high blood pressure expert at Johns Hopkins, says there are multiple benefits to this type of medicine.

Prokopowicz: Thiazide diuretics have been around since the 1960s. We know very well how they work, we know their risks and benefits and feel very comfortable using them. A lot of patients, I think, react negatively to diuretics because they are afraid they’re going to make them run to the bathroom all the time. In practice with the doses that are used for treating high blood pressure that’s typically not the case.  Now there are some patients who can’t take diuretics because they might affect certain levels of minerals in the blood like sodium or potassium but assuming there are no problems they remain excellent first choices.  :32

Prokopowicz notes that the most important thing is to treat high blood pressure. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.