Recently, Dr. Xiaoxia Hou from the Department of Cardiology of our hospital has compiled some answers to the medication questions frequently asked by hypertensive patients in clinical practice. In a few short sentences, the precautions and common misunderstandings in medication administration are explained in a simple and clear manner. Perhaps you and your family members also have such questions, so take a look at these “two or three things about hypertension medication” compiled by our doctor. Patient question: Some hypertensive patients take short-acting antihypertensive drugs, such as captopril and nifedipine, but they only take them once a day and their blood pressure is not well controlled. Doctors say: Captopril and nifedipine are short-acting drugs, so taking them once a day cannot maintain the effect for 24 hours. If you take them just once a day in the morning, your blood pressure will rise in the afternoon or evening. Just like we need to eat three meals a day, because only one meal will not be enough for the day. When you feel “hungry” in your belly, it’s time to eat the next meal. But antihypertensive drugs can not wait until the effects of the last meal wear off before taking the next meal, which will cause high and low blood pressure, fluctuations. This will not only be detrimental to blood pressure control, but can also be dangerous. The patient asked: Doctor, my neighbor Wang and I both have high blood pressure, why do we use different antihypertensive drugs? He has been taking a certain medicine, blood pressure control is particularly good, I can not take? The doctor said: The medicine that suits others may not suit you, and there may be side effects after eating it. Just like eating, what others love to eat may not be what they love to eat, and what others eat especially well may not be what they can eat. There are only six major types of antihypertensive drugs in common use, and there are more than 200 million hypertensive patients in China. Therefore, there will always be many patients taking the same class of drugs. On the surface, the drugs we take are similar. But patients are very different, each patient has its own disease characteristics. The doctor prescribes the medication based on these individual differences of the patient to choose. And the same drug is used differently at different times in the same disease. Therefore, the best medicine is the one that suits you. You should never switch to any medication that you see others taking. Be sure to consult your doctor to avoid using the wrong medication, incurring serious adverse reactions, or even bringing life-threatening consequences. Patient Q: I have been taking a certain drug for more than 10 years for my hypertension, and my blood pressure is well controlled. But should I take the initiative to change my medication after taking this one drug for more than 10 years? Doctors say: If there is a drug, long-term use of the efficacy of the exact, without any side effects, doctors usually recommend to continue to adhere to the drug. Because if the original blood pressure control is stable, the practice of “changing medication for the sake of changing medication” will only artificially cause blood pressure fluctuations, bring discomfort, or even lead to a sudden rise in systolic blood pressure to 180 mmHg or more, causing danger. However, in one case, even if the blood pressure is stable, the doctor will take the initiative to adjust the type of medication the patient is taking due to changes in the patient’s co-morbidities. As the saying goes, no medication is taken for no reason, and no medication is changed for the sake of it.