Patients Mistakes
Nobody’s blameless. And patients make mistakes, too. The two big ones in blood-pressure treatment are both what doctors call “compliance” problems.
Avoiding Lifestyle Changes.
“The likelihood that a patient will comply long-term with nondrug therapy is pretty dismal;’ says Dr. White. “Somebody will be really great for four to six months-they’ll lose weight so their pressure goes down. You see them the next year and they’ve gained weight back and stopped exercising. The next thing you know, the pressure’s back up. Then the physician is likely to resort to prescribing medications to control blood pressure:’
Before you and your doctor reach that point, though, there arc a few other tactics you can try:
- Ask your HMO or local hospitals and health groups where to find hypertension support groups.
- Look in your local newspaper for heart-healthy cooking classes. They’re cropping up all over.
- Use a home blood-pressure monitor regularly to get feedback on how well lifestyle changes arc working for you.
Not Taking the Medication.
Sometimes people don’t take the drug that can help them because they regard even an aspirin with distrust. Often it’s because they’re having side effects with one drug, which makes them dismiss all drugs in the bloodpressure arsenal. “It’s very difficult to convince people to take medication for the rest of their lives. Often, people feel well, so they tend not to take medication,” says Harry Gavras, M.D., vice-chairman of the American Heart Association’s council for High Blood Pressure Research and chief of the hypertension and atherosclerosis section of Boston University Medical Center.
If the idea of taking a pill every day of your life turns you off, you need to do a little research on why it’s so necessary. Ask your doctor to point you in the direction of information. If it’s side effects that have understandably put you off pill taking, be aware that there arc six very different classes of drugs for blood pressure and many medications in each class. “You really need to get on different medication. It shouldn’t produce side effects,” says Dr. Pickering.