High blood pressure, or hypertension, is a problem that many people face at some point in their lives. Sometimes high blood pressure is a perfectly natural occurrence, like when a body is being put through serious physical exertion and everything is tight, taut and working hard. However, it’s just not good when someone who is at rest and not moving at all has blood pressure like someone fighting for their life against a wild animal. Age, poor diet, lack of exercise and other factors can do a lot of damage to a people’s arterial walls, veins and capillaries over the years.

You might wonder which is the best drug for high blood pressure because you yourself have the issue to deal with, but it could also be a friend or family members suddenly dealing with hypertension too. Whatever the case, it’s important to remember that individual results will vary when dealing with the same drugs. What works for one person might not work for the next and could literally be fatal for another, so don’t go sharing high blood pressure meds. Doctors usually begin with a single step and make progressively more aggressive moves to limit hypertension if the methods already applied fail to work.

Most physicians will start a patient off on some kind of diuretic. These medications are simple and tend to have no side effects besides those which are intended. They eliminate excess water and sodium from the body by flushing it out, so patients should expect frequent urination when using a diuretic over a long period of time. Getting rid of extra water and salts in the body is actually enough to beat high blood pressure for some patients, but others will need more help than this to get over their health condition. One or more of these medications may be prescribed to help treat high blood pressure

Beta Blockers

These could be some of the most dangerous medicines for controlling blood pressure because of how they work. Beta blockers might also be the best drug for high blood pressure for that same reason. These drugs work by blocking specific signals sent to the heart and blood vessels via hormones and nerves. This blockage causes those vessels and veins to do nothing and relax because of that. They certainly work for some people but those with histories of heart conditions in their families will probably want to stay away from beta blockers.

ACE Inhibitors

ACE inhibitors work by targeting and stopping the affectation of blood vessels by angiotensin, a hormone which causes constriction. ACE actually stands for angiotensin-converting enzyme, so no surprise there. There are many different medications with different names which all accomplish the same task in slightly different ways. Patients prescribed ACE inhibitors could get ramipril, also Altace; lisinopril, also Zestril, or captopril, also Capoten. Each of these medicines have different trade and marketing names but they all perform the same task of stopping angiotensin from causing blood vessels to constrict. There are still other medications which might be used for hypertension.

Calcium Channel Blockers

In addition to blocking certain hormones and compounds from affecting your blood vessels, there are other ways you can counter hypertension and its ill effects on your body. By getting down to a cellular level and preventing as much calcium from reaching your individual muscle cells, you can cause all of your body to relax slightly. These calcium channel blockers lower blood pressure by causing a general dilation of blood vessels and can be taken with few ill side effects, so they are often prescribed when other medications could pose too much risk for patients.

Renin Inhibitors

For some patients, it’s even better than stopping hormones from affecting blood vessels if they can stop those hormones from being produced in the first place. The liver produces an enzyme called Renin which is just the first step in a long chain of biological processes which ultimately increase a person’s blood pressure. By limiting the production of Renin, the rate of occurrence of this process is diminished and so is the presence of the side effects associated with the process. Unlike the other types of medicine listed here, it is a very bad idea to mix Renin inhibitors with any other hypertension medication.
With all these and other choices available, it’s hard to say which the best drug for high blood pressure is. For some people with blood vessels which are normally very constricted, getting something to loosen them up might do the trick. Others who already don’t have heightened blood pressure from their livers won’t really benefit from a medicine which stops the non-harmful process from occurring. The only way to figure out which type of high blood pressure medication will work best for you is to have your specific circumstances reviewed by your physician. It was said once but it’s definitely worth repeating – do not share hypertension medication, for your sake and everyone else’s.