Elderly heart patients receiving too much medication?

Source:  BBC Health; British Heart Foundation

I’m not being ageist, but how else do I refer to patients aged 80 and over, other than elderly?  I’ll take your suggestions.

Cardiac (that’s in relation to the heart) guidelines in both the US and the UK are similar in their recommendations for blood pressure medications at age 80 and beyond. A combination of medications –statins (drugs which lower blood pressure) and ACE inhibitors (same but different mechanism) being among the primary classifications along with drugs which specifically address cholesterol (fat) in the arteries.  The goal of the guidelines is to provide a blood pressure of 140/90 mmHg.

When cardiologists start suggesting that there patients might be over-medicated you should take notice.  The recommendations of a recent study, the “Cochrane Study” calls for a more reasonable (meaning less aggressively achieved with medications) target blood pressure of 150/80 mmHg.

If you are concerned that your spouse, parent, grandparent or family member may be receiving  too much in the way of cardiac medications talk to their cardiologist.  Be an informed medical consumer, not one of the sheeple.

~Posted by David Marc Schwadron, Esquire