Approximately 32 percent of Americans over the age of 20 suffer from high blood pressure or hypertension, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Because uncontrolled high blood pressure increases your risk for stroke and heart failure, treatment is necessary for people with hypertension.

Medication

The primary medications used to treat high blood pressure include thiazide diuretics like hydrochlorothiazide, beta blockers like metoprolol, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors like lisinopril and calcium channel blockers like amlodipine.

Function

Thiazide diuretics increase urination, which helps your body eliminate sodium and water and decreases the volume of your blood and lowers pressure, reports the Mayo Clinic. Beta blockers, ACE inhibitors and calcium channel blockers use various mechanisms to cause your blood vessels to relax and widen, allowing blood to pass through easier and reducing pressure.

Features

Once you begin taking high blood pressure medications, you are likely to continue taking them for the rest of your life. In some cases, your doctor may need to prescribe more than one type of high blood pressure medication to control your hypertension, explains the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

Other Treatments

In addition to using medications, doctors typically instruct patients with high blood pressure to exercise regularly and reach or maintain a healthy weight. Decreasing sodium intake to 1,500 mg per day and avoiding alcohol and smoking also help lower blood pressure levels, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Considerations

The sooner you catch high blood pressure, the easier it is to treat. Because of this, adults over the age of 18 should have their blood pressure measured by a doctor on a regular basis, suggests the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

Source:

Mayo Clinic: High Blood Pressure

U.S. National Library of Medicine: Hypertension

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Hypertension