Why does cough occur when taking blood pressure pills and which medications do not cause this symptom?

Hypertension requires an individual approach to the prescription of medications for high blood pressure. It is very important to select for the patient those medications that will effectively help eliminate the underlying problem, and at the same time will not provoke new health problems. Unfortunately, many effective blood pressure medications have a serious side effect - they cause coughing. Taking this into account, doctors try to make do with other medications and prescribe blood pressure pills that do not cause coughing.

What medications provoke the syndrome?

So, what medications are there for hypertension that cause cough? Today it is known for sure that it is provoked by medications that belong to the following groups:

As experts note, a strong cough reflex is most often stimulated by medications that belong to the enalapril class of ACE inhibitors.

Is it necessary to stop taking a medicine that causes a cough?

The question of canceling treatment is decided on an individual basis. The appearance of a cough in the early stages of hypertension is an unfavorable symptom. It indicates developing vascular diseases and limits the range of medications that can be used to treat the underlying disease. If you continue therapy with the same drug, the side effects will become stronger.

If there are any signs of poor tolerability of the drug, it is better for the patient to seek help from a doctor. The best option is to replace the drug. However, this must be done correctly, after additional examination and identification of all the features of the course of hypertension. Independent selection of funds is fraught with a number of complications and aggravation of the patient’s condition.

Periodic pauses in therapy also lead to adverse consequences. Destabilization of pressure indicators and the development of a crisis are possible. In this case, the patient will have to go to the hospital. Severe changes are fraught with acute, life-threatening complications.

Features of the treatment of hypertension

Hypertension is by no means a problem for older people. As is known, signs of hypertension have recently begun to be increasingly recorded in young patients. The first stage of hypertension is characterized by an increase of 20/10 units, the second stage is a pressure above 180 to 100, and the third stage goes beyond 200/115.

Doctors warn that therapy must be started already at the first stage, when pressure readings have just exceeded the permissible limits. When using medications that provoke coughing after taking pills, patients often quit treatment because suffering from coughing brings them significant discomfort. At the same time, imaginary improvements in blood pressure lead patients to the false conclusion that hypertension has been defeated. This is by no means true, because increased pressure can be disguised as other symptoms that patients cannot distinguish, which means that the problem itself has not been eliminated.

Which blood pressure medications do not cause coughing?

Since a dry cough appears after taking ACE inhibitors and beta-blockers, tablets from these groups must be prescribed with caution in case of arterial hypertension.
It is better to choose a medicine for blood pressure that does not cause coughing and has a milder effect.

For example, calcium antagonists do not usually cause the side effect of coughing. Combination medications and diuretics are also well tolerated.

Calcium antagonists

The most pronounced hypotensive effect is exerted by tablets belonging to the group of calcium channel blockers. At the same time, they are characterized as tablets for hypertension that do not cause coughing. The drugs act exclusively on myocardial and vascular cells.

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Calcium antagonists:

• normalize excitability processes;
• improve impulse conductivity;
• reduce blood pressure to normal levels;
• stabilize the tonometer readings for a long time;
• normalize carbohydrate metabolism;
• increase the contractile activity of the heart muscle;
• increase myocardial oxygen consumption. And this minimizes the likelihood of developing coronary heart disease;
• prevent the development of depressed and depressed mood;
• reduce the risk of left ventricular hypertrophy;
• have a beneficial effect on the functioning of the kidneys.

Calcium antagonists do not harm physical and mental activity, do not provoke the development of bronchospasm, and do not impair carbohydrate metabolism and kidney function. The most well-known drugs in this group are Nicardipine, Nimodipine, Isradipine, Lacidipine and Riodicin.

Since the list of side effects of calcium channel blockers is minimal, drugs in this group are recommended for use in the treatment of elderly people and patients diagnosed with diabetes mellitus.

Patients who take calcium antagonists note a rapid improvement in their overall health.

Diuretics

For hypertensive patients who have an increased risk of developing a dry cough during drug therapy, doctors advise using medications from the group of diuretics. Such tablets remove all excess fluid and salt from the body.

This allows you to normalize and stabilize the tonometer readings. A gradual decrease in blood pressure while taking diuretic tablets is explained by a decrease in circulating blood volume.

Furosemide tablets

But which blood pressure medications don't cause coughing? The drug Furosemide does not cause a cough attack. Doctors also often prescribe Indapamide, Veroshpiron, Spironolactone, Triampur, Arifon and Hydrochlorothiazide.

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Tablets from the diuretic group are prescribed in short courses. In this case, parallel administration of Panangin is indicated, the main active component of which is potassium. After all, a number of diuretics tend to wash out this microelement from the body.

To achieve maximum results and neutralize the influence of negative consequences, many doctors combine diuretics with calcium blockers or ACE inhibitors. There are also potassium-sparing diuretics. According to patient reviews, these are the best blood pressure medications that do not cause coughing.

Combination medications

Many cardiologists today prefer to prescribe their patients combination blood pressure medications that do not cause coughing. They are more effective, suitable for a wide range of people with high blood pressure and much easier to tolerate.

The main components of such tablets can be components from different medicinal groups, where the negative effects of some are suppressed by the positive effects of other medications.

The most popular combinations are given below:

• calcium antagonists + ACE inhibitors;
• diuretics + beta-blockers;
• diuretics + ACE inhibitors;
• calcium channel blockers + diuretics.

Many pharmaceutical organizations offer their consumers cough-free blood pressure tablets that contain not two, but three active ingredients.

All combination medications are available in different dosages of one and the other active substance.

The most popular and effective are the following combination drugs:

• Co-Renitec;
• Phosicard N;
• Equator;
• Logimax;
• Tarka;
• Atacand Plus;
• Noliprel forte.;
• Micardis Plus;
• Coaprovel.

New generation tablets have a number of advantages:

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• prolonged action;
• minimal risk of side effects;
• maximum therapeutic effect.

Self-prescribing antihypertensive drugs that do not cause a cough can worsen your health. The decision on the advisability of using a medicine should be made by an experienced doctor, based on the severity of the disease and the characteristics of the patient’s body. Sometimes the cardiologist selects an individual combination of drugs. This allows you not to provoke a deterioration in the overall clinical picture.

Drugs for the treatment of hypertension

There are several groups of drugs that help normalize blood pressure. Based on the indications and side effects, doctors choose the most suitable medications for patients, and some of them can actually provoke a cough.

Beta blockers

Attention! In first place in terms of popularity of prescriptions is the group of beta blockers. These drugs can quickly lower blood pressure, they reduce the heart rate, but at the same time, long-term use of drugs leads to a dry cough, an allergic reaction, and a slowing of the pulse. The group of drugs is represented by the medications Bisoprolol, Atenolol, Nebivolol and others.

ACE inhibitors can also dilate blood vessels and cope with coronary artery disease and heart failure, but a significant defect of the drugs is a dry cough.

Angiotensin receptor blockers

Among the drugs for high blood pressure, it is worth noting a group of angiotensin receptor blockers. These are angiotensin antagonist drugs that perfectly control blood pressure, lower it evenly, not abruptly, and at the same time they do not provoke a cough. This group of drugs includes Losartan, Cardosal, Eprosartan, Telmisartan, Valsartan.

These drugs perfectly control blood pressure - it is enough to take one tablet a day so that the pressure does not rise all day, and the person feels good. At the same time, to achieve a lasting effect, it is necessary to take the drugs for at least three months.

Calcium channel blockers

A popular group of calcium channel blockers works by reducing calcium levels in muscles. At the same time, the muscles of the heart muscle relax, the pressure decreases, but the most important effect of the drugs is that they do not have such side effects as a dry cough.

If there is not enough calcium in the muscle tissue, then it will not contract much, and therefore, if there is a calcium deficiency in the vessels, they also contract less and do not provoke an increase in pressure. Such drugs include Diltiazem, Amlodipine, Verapramil.

Diuretics

Important! You can also lower your blood pressure with the help of diuretics - they have a diuretic effect and, when removing excess water, do an excellent job of reducing blood pressure. Patients note the positive effect of these drugs and, according to patient reviews, the drugs Triampur, Hydrochlorothiazide, Veroshpiron, Indapamide, Diuver do not cause cough in hypertensive patients.

Doctors note that very often patients exceed the dosage of the drug when used. Frightened by high blood pressure numbers, they take more pills than they should, so for many of them the pills actually provoke a cough. Therefore, doctors emphasize that when taking drugs, overdose options should be excluded.

When does cough from antihypertensive drugs appear?

After taking ACE inhibitor tablets, after a certain time (an average of 14.5 weeks), some patients experience a side effect - a severe cough with increased blood pressure.

Because of this, the medicine has to be stopped. Scientists have found that the causes of coughing attacks during hypertension depend on the characteristics of the human body and the diagnosed pathology.

The cough reflex is usually observed in people with heart failure. According to statistics, dry cough in hypertensive patients during treatment with antihypertensive drugs occurs in 15% of cases. And in patients with chronic heart failure – in 26%. The complication is typical for all ACE inhibitors. Doctors have noticed that most often an unpleasant syndrome appears when using Enalapril and Captopril.

But the reason is not always ACE inhibitors. There have been cases where a side effect developed while taking beta-blockers. The reason is an increase in the concentration of the peptide bradykinin, which accumulates in the upper respiratory tract. Often a dry cough is associated with a hereditary predisposition of hypertensive patients to such a deviation.

In this case, after taking the pill, the back wall of the pharynx becomes irritated in the patient. This provokes the development of an unpleasant symptom.

As a rule, the cough from antihypertensive pills is dry, paroxysmal, jerky and prolonged. When lying down, when changing position, or during physical activity, a cough due to hypertension may intensify.

This sometimes leads to hoarseness, vomiting, urinary incontinence, and loss of appetite. This phenomenon is not accompanied by signs of bronchial obstruction, hypersensitivity, or impaired renal function. But it was found that patients with this symptom significantly worsen their quality of life and periodically develop depressive states.

Today, pharmacists offer effective blood pressure tablets that do not cause a dry cough. Therefore, patients who do not tolerate beta-blockers or ACE inhibitors are better off taking more modern medications. It should be noted that coughing while taking antihypertensive pills is not dangerous, it just causes some discomfort. As the dosage is reduced, it usually disappears. But a lower dose is sometimes not enough to maintain normal tonometer readings. Therefore, it is recommended to use special antitussives. For example, Ambroxol.

Finding the optimal solution

The choice of doctors falls on Triamterene - a medicine that can lower blood pressure, but at the same time maintain calcium levels in the body. New medications must be used extremely responsibly, because an overdose leads to the accumulation of drugs in the blood, which causes complications in patients.

As for beta blockers, they provoke depression, insomnia, and heart pain in patients.
ACE inhibitors, in turn, also provoke a cough, and also affect the appearance of skin rashes and allergic reactions. A drug such as Lisinopril, in addition to a dry cough, can also cause a lot of other problems with the digestive, nervous and respiratory systems. It is not surprising that drugs with such side effects are inexpensive. Patients suffering from hypertension today have many options to use blood pressure pills that do not cause coughing. If this complication occurs, you just need to consult a doctor, and he will select the right medicine.

Dry cough when taking blood pressure pills

Any drug that lowers a person's blood pressure has side effects. ACE inhibitors often provoke a cough without sputum discharge.

Many scientists have come to the conclusion that the occurrence of a dry cough when taking antihypertensive drugs occurs as a result of the accumulation of bradykinin in the bronchi.

Beta blocker medications can also trigger a cough. These drugs affect receptors located in the blood vessels, heart and bronchi.