Principles of Treatment of Arterial Hypertension

We ought to be concerned about preventing hypertension and not treating it. Prevention is better than cure and considering the absurd statistics of a steep rise in hypertensive patients, alongside its major risk factor which is attributed to our own lifestyle, prevention should have been the ultimate issue to talk about. Yes! This is absolutely true but we cannot shy away from the fact that some or most of these patients still suffer from hypertension. What should we do then? Sit back and preach prevention? There are regions hit seriously by this silent killer whereby almost one person in a family suffers from hypertension. In this situation, they (the other non- hypertensive family members) would need to know or learn the principles of treatment of hypertension because it is a very sensitive process which if not done properly, may lead to other bad situations such as coma, drug poisoning and so on.

The treatment of arterial hypertension should be started as soon as possible and should be continued till the end of Life. Canceling antihypertensive drugs administration causes relapse of arterial hypertension. All the individuals with increased arterial pressure should obtain drugless treatment (modifying Lifestyle) such as;

• Rejection from smoking and alcohol
• Increasing of physical activity
• Restriction of salt consumption (less than 6g per day)
• Decreasing of body weight in a case of obesity
• Eat well, good balanced diet recipes should be consumed
• In as much as increased physical activity is encouraged, avoid activities causing over load and stress.

Scheme of drug treatment should be the most availably simple tablet per day if possible; it is better to use drugs with long duration of action (prophylaxis of considerable fluctuation of blood pressure during the day). Rapid decreasing of blood pressure to low figures is dangerous, especially for elderly patients.

Main aim of the treatment is to decrease blood pressure from 140/90. To improve Life prognosis is the aim that has a more significant meaning than character of drugs used to reach this aim. It is better to prescribe cheap and 'non-modern' drugs than don't treat the patient at all.

No matter the urgency, you still need a medical practitioner to advice on the drug to use. Some are contraindicated in asthma, while some impair renal perfusion, some affect male sexual function and some cannot be used during pregnancy. Not only that, the Medical practitioner needs to tell you the side effects of each drug to be used. Nevertheless, this should be done at the beginning or on the first incidence of this treatment therapy. Apply these basic principles and be sure to sustain a hypertensive patient for as long as it takes.