This archive report was first published on 26 November 2019.
Study reveals benefits of nighttime blood pressure medication ¶
Published on November 26, 2019, a study in the European Medical Journal has shed light on the optimal time for taking anti-hypertensive medication. The research, which involved 19,084 patients, found that those who took their medication at bedtime had better-controlled blood pressure and a significantly lower risk of death or illness caused by heart or blood vessel problems.
The study, led by Prof Ramón Hermida, Director of the Bioengineering and Chronobiology Labs at the University of Vigo, Spain, showed that patients who took their medication at bedtime had nearly half the risk (45 percent reduction) of dying from or suffering from cardiovascular conditions such as strokes, heart attacks, myocardial infarction (death of heart muscle) or heart failure.
Additionally, the risk of death from heart or blood vessel problems was reduced by 66 percent, while that of myocardial infarction declined by 44 percent. The chances of patients suffering from a stroke or heart failure also declined by 49 percent and 42 percent respectively, for those who took anti-hypertensive medicine at night.
Prof Hermida noted that current guidelines on the treatment of hypertension do not mention or recommend any preferred treatment time, and that morning uptake of medicine has been the most common recommendation by physicians based on the misleading goal of reducing morning blood pressure levels.
However, the study's findings suggest that the average systolic blood pressure when a person is asleep is the most significant and independent indication of cardiovascular disease risk, regardless of blood pressure measurements taken while awake or when visiting a doctor.
