As the aging of the population increases, the incidence of cardiovascular diseases increases, and almost everyone is surrounded by an older person who suffers from cardiovascular diseases. He may be your relative, friend, colleague or classmate. Once an elderly person near you has a sudden attack, you may need to use emergency drugs to buy time to save your life and improve your symptoms. So today we are going to talk about what medications should be prepared for elderly people at home, especially those with heart disease. Before talking about medications, there are a few key things to explain: As a family member with cardiovascular disease, you should usually understand the general health status of the elderly, how the physical examination is going, what underlying diseases they have, and what diseases they are at high risk of developing, and target prevention. Master the method of blood pressure measurement. People with high blood pressure can usually pay attention to monitor blood pressure, and diabetic patients should monitor blood sugar. You need to understand, and let the elderly also understand how to call the emergency number, to be able to accurately describe the contact information, location, the number of people, the onset of the disease, and the measures that have been taken on their own. Families need to know the general information about medical institutions in the vicinity that are easily accessible, such as location and service capacity: especially for strokes (cerebral infarction, cerebral hemorrhage) and unstable angina (including acute exacerbation of many forms of angina, myocardial infarction), you need to rush to a large regular hospital in time for treatment. Families of patients with heart disease must be prepared with the following drugs: 1, vasodilator drugs: Nitroglycerin: is one of the necessary drugs for coronary heart patients, its ability to rapidly dilate the coronary arteries, can prevent and treat angina attacks. When angina attack, you can take 1 tablet (0.5 mg) under the tongue, within 1 minute or so, can play the effect, its effectiveness can be maintained for 15-30 minutes. If the tablet is not effective for 15-30 minutes, you can take another tablet. Some patients may experience swelling, headache, heat, throbbing sensation and burning sensation under the tongue after using the drug. It is important to note that nitroglycerin should be taken sublingually in order to work quickly, and direct swallowing should be avoided. If cardiac symptoms do not improve after three consecutive doses of nitroglycerin, call an emergency vehicle. Nitroglycerin is not very stable, and the drug will fail when exposed to heat, moisture, sunlight or stored for too long, so it should be stored away from light, heat and moisture. If it has been opened, it is recommended to replace it every three months to maintain the efficacy of the medicine. It should be emphasized that it is better to measure the blood pressure before taking nitroglycerin, if the blood pressure is very low, it may not be suitable for taking nitroglycerin. It is important to note that some patients now prepare “quick-acting heart pills” as an emergency medicine, the main ingredients of which are Chuanxiong and ice chips, which can provide a certain degree of pain relief after being taken. But at present we do not recommend this drug as the first line of emergency drugs, its onset of action time, the degree of vasodilation are much worse than nitroglycerin. 2, rapid antihypertensive drugs: cardiac pain (nifedipine): is a short-acting hypotensive drugs, belong to the calcium ion antagonist. Many patients may experience frequent increases in blood pressure, and the degree of elevation is large, need to control blood pressure in the normal range as soon as possible, this time can be applied to heartburn. However, it should be noted that this drug has a relatively rapid onset of action and a large drop in blood pressure. Some elderly people may have a greater cardiovascular risk due to a sudden drop in blood pressure, so this drug should be used with caution. We recommend oral administration rather than sublingual administration. It is also important to measure blood pressure frequently, and once the degree of blood pressure drop is too fast, you can lie down in a flat position and drink more water appropriately. Some patients may experience flushing, headache and heartbeat with this drug. The symptoms are usually mild and improve after 3-5 hours. A similar short-acting antihypertensive drug is Kepone (Captopril), which can be taken temporarily when blood pressure rises in patients with hypertension, and it also works relatively quickly and does not cause facial flushing and increased heart rate like nifedipine. The two drugs can be chosen as a backup. 3, stabilize the heart rate (rhythm) drugs: Betaxolol: it is recommended to prepare metoprolol tartrate tablets (rather than metoprolol succinate tablets), because it is a relatively short-acting betablocker, the onset of action time can be faster, the duration is relatively short. It is mainly effective for sinus tachycardia, premature atrial and ventricular beats, atrial tachycardia, atrial flutter and atrial fibrillation. If elderly people have symptoms of palpitations with increased self-test pulse and not low blood pressure, they can take Betalac (12.5-25mg orally). Some patients with heavy palpitations can take the drug in pieces in an emergency, and the night can be applied by taking Betalac sublingually, which may work a little faster. It is important to note that patients with asthma, or patients with slow heart rates, are not allowed to use this type of medication. Some patients with previous definite supraventricular tachycardia or paroxysmal atrial fibrillation may also be prepared with cardioplegia (propafenone), provided the patient does not have particularly severe cardiac insufficiency or ischemic heart disease. In patients with previous supraventricular tachycardia or atrial flutter or atrial fibrillation, if similar symptoms occur again, 3-4 tablets of oral cardioplegia can be administered immediately, which can achieve termination of tachycardia and restoration of sinus rhythm. We do not recommend keeping amiodarone in the emergency kit because the oral onset of action of this drug is too slow. 4, anti-platelet aggregation drugs: aspirin enteric soluble tablets: its anti-platelet aggregation drugs, in angina and acute myocardial infarction patients, this drug is very important, and need to be taken as soon as possible. By asking you to prepare aspirin enteric tablets, we are not suggesting that you take this medication as soon as chest pain occurs. Because many chest pains are not related to coronary artery disease, if you have aortic coarctation or other non-coronary artery disease, taking oral anti-platelet aggregation drugs increases the risk. The reason why we ask people to prepare aspirin enteric tablets is because if it is clear that it is angina or heart attack, this drug is routinely taken before intervention, and the earlier it is taken, the more beneficial it may be. However, often patients themselves cannot determine whether it is coronary or not, so we recommend that you prepare aspirin at home and decide whether to take it immediately after seeing an emergency physician and following the doctor’s orders. It is equally important to have aspirin enteric tablets at home. In fact, there are many different types of heart diseases and different treatment plans and medications for different diseases. There are thousands of medications available for heart disease. However, we only recommend that you have a few common medications in your emergency kit so that they are easy to manage and easy for you to use. If you have any symptoms, make sure to measure your heart rate, blood pressure and other vital signs, and choose different emergency medications according to your symptoms. When the symptoms are serious, calling for help in time is even more important than emergency medication.