Recently, a new study suggested that administering blood pressure drugs to diabetes patients isn’t a good idea. They suggest that these drugs against high blood pressure wouldn’t always be beneficial as they might pose a risk of heart attack in diabetics. This study was published on February 25, 2016, in The BMJ.
Many times, Diabetic patients are known to have high blood pressure as well. This is the reason many diabetics are recommended to get antihypertensive treatments.
Umea University’s Mattias Brunstrom, the author of the study, says that intense therapies that use antihypertensives for lowering blood pressure can be quite dangerous for diabetic patients who have systolic Blood pressure lesser than 140mm Hg.
The authors reviewed unpublished patient records and published studies for determining the effects of antihypertensives on diabetics. The study included 73,738 subjects and 49 trials, out of which majority of people were diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.
All in all, the study included 49 trials with a total of 73,738 subjects, of whom the majority were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. As per the findings, it was seen that the pre-treatment blood pressure of patients shows the impact of antihypertensive drugs.
For instance, if a patient is having systolic blood pressure of 140 mm Hg, the risk of death, stroke and heart attack is decreased. On the other hand, patients having a systolic blood pressure of 140 mm Hg have an increased risk of death due to cardiovascular disease.
Since these results were noted in patients with Type 2 diabetes, the effects on those having Type 1 diabetes cannot be concluded. Authors state that the reports are essential for research on hypertension as well as for clinicians.
The study doesn’t point out only the importance of monitoring overtreatment but also signifies the vitality of looking at the treatment of blood pressure as a whole.