Medicines to be avoided by Heart Patients
By: Robert NamTotal Views: 204, Word Count: 536,
Heart failure can range from mild to severe attack. Once you are a heart patient, you have to follow some precautions regarding drug intake. As heart is the most important organ of the body, you should not take medicines that have bad effect on your body.
Medicines to be Avoided by Heart Patients
Any heart patient can be affected by false drugs that can result in the rise of blood pressure, and irregular heartbeat which can lead to heart break. Let us focus on the drugs to be avoided by heat patients.
No steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs)
1. These drugs include aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen, etc. which are taken to reduce pain or inflammation.
2. Use of these drugs can increase the blood pressure and interfere with blood-pressure-lowering drugs.
3. You should avoid COX-2 inhibitors such as celecoxib.
Thiazolidinediones
Rosiglitazone and pioglitazone are two examples of diabetes drugs included in this class. This can change the levels of fluid retention in patients which is responsible for heart failure.
Hormone Replacement Therapy and Oral Contraceptives
1. Drugs used in hormone replacement therapy and oral contraceptive, can raise blood pressure.
2. Pregnancy can also result in hypertension
Along with these, the list of drugs presented below should also be avoided by heart patients:
1. Stimulants, e.g. Adderall (anamphetamine), methylpenidate (Ritalin, Concerta) used in physiological treatments.
2. Chemotherapy drugs such as doxorubicin.
3. Antidepressants e.g. venlafaxine
4. Illegal drugs such as cocaine, methamphetamine, sildenafil which contains Viagra should be supervised by a physician.
Along with this restriction, drugs containing sodium can also cause heart failure. High levels of sodium in drinking water are dangerous, so use distilled or low sodium bottled water.
General Precautions
It is beneficial to avoid some drugs which can in the future cause heart failure. These are listed as below:
- Decongestants containing pseudoephedrine such as Sudafed
- Alcohol and illicit drugs which can cause hospitalization
- Some nutritional supplements and growth hormone therapies which affect your heart can be avoided.
- Ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin), naproxen (Aleve, Naprosyn)
Addition to this, patients use herbal medicines or drugs for heart treatment. Most patients do not disclose their use of herbal remedies. Surveys have found that the number of visits to herbal clinics have increased as compared to primary care physicians This can be proved as a great risk in case of major heart diseases. So it is important to take these herbals medications in addition to prescribed allopathic medications.
Recently, researchers found that patients who took TMP-SMX along with heart drugs have chances to develop abnormally high levels of potassium in the blood, a condition called hyperkalemia. This is dangerous because it can lead to heart rhythm disorder. Serious hyperkalemia can result in sudden death. So to avoid the complications related to combination of drugs, physicians as well as pharmacists need to be aware of the effect of drugs and can select alternative antibiotics that don't interact with ACEI or ARBs.
About the Author
Dr. Robert Nam is a well known heart specialist and has done postgraduate training in cardiology at the national heart hospital, the London chest hospital and UCL hospital, London. He was also engaged in research at the national heart and lung institute. Nowadays he is working as a consultant cardiologist at UCL hospital, London.
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