Issue 213 Item 1 Two For The Price Of One : Hypertension Drug Also Prevents Diab

Blood pressure drug reduces risk of diabetes by 23%. PATIENTS being treated for high blood pressure with a drug called valsartan were also less likely to develop diabetes, a new study shows. This will influence the way doctors treat patients with hypertension, especially if they have other medical conditions.

The four-year study aimed to compare the effects of two drugs, valsartan and amlodipine, which are commonly used to treat high blood pressure.

It found that valsartan cut the chances of the patients developing diabetes by 23 per cent. The other drug had no noticeable effect on the diabetes risk.

The more than 15,000 patients from 31 countries in the study were those likely to get heart attack, stroke or diabetes because they had high cholesterol levels, were smokers or obese – factors that put them in the high-risk category. The results were published this week in British medical journal The Lancet.

It was already known that both drugs could reduce the risk of the patient getting heart attack or stroke, but their effects had never been compared against each other before. This study sought to identify which drug gave patients more protection from heart attack and stroke, given the same reduction in blood pressure levels. Amlodipine reduced blood pressure levels faster and better than valsartan, especially in the first few months. Both were equally effective in preventing heart-related or stroke complications at the end of four years. In both groups, about 10 per cent of patients suffered or died from a heart attack or stroke.

Amlodipine is known as a calcium channel blocker, because it slows down the rate at which calcium passes into the walls of a blood vessel. Calcium causes blood vessels to constrict.

Valsartan works by blocking a substance called angiotensin which causes arteries to constrict and blood pressure to rise. So it’s known as an angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB). Studies in recent years suggest that this type of drug also protects the kidney.

Dr Low Lip Ping, chairman of the expert committee that is revising the hypertension guidelines now, said the guidelines will most likely recommend that doctors put hypertension patients with kidney problems and diabetes on angiotensin receptor blockers such asvalsartan.

But either drug can be prescribed for patients without such complications, depending on their needs, he said. Lancet: June 16, 2004

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FACT: In a research conducted by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, results showed that 22 percent of adults between the ages of 20 and 79, have at least three of the symptoms of Syndrome X. Locally, it is estimated that one out of five adult Filipinos suffers from Syndrome X.

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