Taking antihypertensives at bedtime improves blood pressure control and significantly lowers cardiovascular risk, say researchers in Spain.
They followed 19,000 patients who took prescription medications upon waking or at bedtime. The bedtime cohort had a 45% reduction in risk of heart attacks, stroke, heart failure or death compared to their morning medication peers.
The analysis was adjusted to account for factors such as age, sex, type 2 diabetes, kidney disease and cholesterol levels.
Hypertension treatment guidelines do not specify a time of day for the medication. But the common prescription — taking it early to lower morning blood pressure — is “misleading,” Ramón C. Hermida, Ph.D, claimed.
Studies have not proven that morning hypertension treatment lowers cardiovascular risk, said Hermida, of the University of Vigo, Spain.
“(D)ecreasing the average systolic blood pressure while asleep and increasing the sleep-time relative decline in blood pressure towards more normal dipper blood pressure patterns are both significantly protective, thus constituting a joint novel therapeutic target for reducing cardiovascular risk,” according to Hermida.
From the December 2019 Issue of McKnight's Long-Term Care News
