BLACKS AND HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE MEDICINE

Are you on the right medicine to control your blood pressure?
A new study on Black Americans shows some medicines work, and some don’t for this subset of hypertensive patients.

A new study on Black Americans shows some high blood pressure medicines work, and some don’t for this subset of hypertensive patients.

There are distinct differences between races in the way the body works, especially when it comes to blood pressure. It’s been believed blacks respond to different medicines than do whites, and this study shows it’s true.

“Both of my parents have hypertension and I was always told that I had possibility of become hypertensive.” Debra Bradley is only 39, but new subtle symptoms--fatigue, and headache--were the signal to get checked. “Now I’m taking basically a water pill which works both ways to control the hypertension along with working as a diuretic.”

And in fact, that treatment is exactly what the doctor called for. New research in the latest annals of internal medicine shows there are significant differences between ethnicities in terms of why hypertension occurs and what drugs will work. Not only are black persons more likely to develop high blood pressure, but in blacks the problem is also likely to be more severe, more resistant to treatment, and more likely to be fatal at an earlier age.

Dr. Mary Ann McCloughlin of Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, New York, says, “We know that African Americans have the highest prevalence of hypertension in the United States. There are several reasons that we think this is higher in African Americans and one is that there maybe different hormones in the body that are at different levels in different races.”

The study found what we have thought all along—that the drugs in the groups called beta blockers and ace inhibitors do not work any better than placebo pills. This is why doctors have traditionally treated blacks first with water pills in many cases.

“We’ve known that diuretics are very affective in African American patients. We also have known in the past that calcium channel blockers seem to be very affective in African Americans. What’s important is that we get the blood pressure down to a certain target goal, no matter what agent is used and it may be that a combo of meds is more necessary in African Americans,” states Dr. McCloughlin.

Debra’s blood pressure is well under control now because of diet and weight loss. “I lost 30 pounds so I am very proud of that because with the weight loss I truly saw a difference and my blood pressure is very well controlled because of the medication and the weight loss. So I am very pleased,” says Debra.