Why Your Blood Pressure Drugs May Not Work
Know Your Numbers is a very familiar phrase, but now “know your PRA status” may become just as common. It stands for Plasma Renin Activity status, which you can be referred for by your doctor. The results can inform him as to which medication will work best with you. Diuretics or calcium channel blockers which are V agents, or ACE (angiotensin-converting enzyme) inhibitors and b-blockers which are R agents.
These drugs work in different ways. Calcium is decreased in the cell causing smooth muscle in the arteries to relax by using the V agent calcium channel blockers, while diuretics also a V agent acts by helping the kidneys to release excess fluid. On the other hand, the R agent beta blockers cause less blood to flow by their effect on the heart, and the R agent ACE inhibitors stop the conversion of angiotensin 1 to angiotensin 11 which would result in the arteries narrowing.
What is so alarming is that Dr. Alderman and other researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine found that the effects of both these medications when tested on the 945 hypertensive patients, were causing a 7.7% rise in blood pressure, a pressor response, contradictory to the desired response.
That is a very high percentage. What is more, 16% of those who had a pressor response had low renin enzyme levels and were given b-blockers or ACE inhibitors which lowered their levels even further. This enzyme is released by the kidney helping to control blood pressure by balancing sodium and potassium, and fluid volume.
At the conclusion it was decided that anti-renin system R medication should not be used on people with a low renin level but on people with higher levels. That way they would accomplish better results with the use of one or two drugs rather than multiply drug therapy.
In the light of JH Laragh`s research, who is the founder of the American Society of Hypertension, and of Dr. Alderman and his co-researchers, four major classes of hypertension are noted. One of those classes are so common that a third of all the hypertension patients suffer from it. It is low-renin hypertension. Taking into conclusion what we have just learned, a large proportion of them may be prescribed the wrong drugs. Are you one of them, or has your doctor made an appointment for a PRA test?
PRA testing used to be difficult and expensive, therefore only priority cases were referred, such as hypertensive patients with low potassium. But now it is more widely available due to simpler methods. Asking your doctor about it sure seems a wise thing to do. But before doctors are given the green light to start mandatory PRA testing, more research needs to be carried out to substantiate these findings. According to Dr. Alderman though, it is time for action.
It is incredible to think that back in 1973 Dr. Laragh was conducting research on renin hypertension, making this discovery an old one. According to the doctor, 60% of hypertensive patients suffer renin hypertension. If a PRA status of all these patients was determined then treatment would produce a significant reduction using only one or two drugs.
Want to find out more about high blood pressure, then visit Jamesina Goulbourne’s site on how Nattokinase can support you.