Are Blood Pressure Tablets More Effective When Taken at Night?

Are Blood Pressure Tablets More Effective When Taken at Night?

Are blood pressure tablets more effective when taken at night? We have written this article following a recent study that has proven that blood pressure tablets are more effective when taken at night.

Several media sources reported that blood pressure tablets work better if taken at bedtime, reducing the risk of a heart attack and early death.  The results come from a large trial carried out across general practices in northern Spain. It included around 20,000 adults (aged 60 on average) with high blood pressure.

Half the people were told to take their blood pressure tablets at bedtime, and the other half upon waking. They were followed up for an average of 6 years, during which time around 1 in 10 experienced a heart attack, heart failure or stroke, or died from cardiovascular disease.

The study found that people who took their blood pressure tablets at bedtime has significantly lower night-time blood pressure and were 45% less likely to have any one of these outcomes.

What Does the Trial Tell Us?

This is valuable trial investigating the best time to take blood pressure medicines. It has particular strengths of a very large sample size and long duration of follow-up, which is fairly rare for a randomised trial.

It finds that taking medicines at bedtime lowersblood pressure during the night and reduces risk of heart attacks and other cardiovascular outcomes. They found this difference not only when looking at all events combined, but each of them individually. This suggests that the timing of taking medicines can make a real difference. This lends support to previous trials that have had similar findings.

Currently the various blood pressure medicines do not have strict prescribing information on when during the day they need to be taken, with the exception that diuretics (water tablets) are often taken in the morning to prevent people needing to pee frequently during the night.

Limitations to Findings

Despite the positive findings, there are some limitations to the trial. These include that the researchers could not analyse the effect of timing for specific blood pressure medicines. In addition, the trial was conducted in a predominantly Spanish, exclusively white ethnic population who may not be representative of other populations.

The researchers themselves acknowledge that the results of their trial now need to be validated in other study populations. Further conclusive findings may in future lead to changes in how blood pressure medicines are prescribed.

Lifestyle factors also make a difference to blood pressure, so avoid:

• Drinking too much alcohol
• Smoking
• Being overweight
• Not doing enough exercise
• Eating too much salt

Who Are RXLive Pharmacy?

This article was written by the pharmaceutical experts at RXLive online pharmacy, who post repeat prescriptions to you for free! You may wish to consider using services such as RXLive, which provide a free delivery service to ensure you never miss your medication again and have a dedicated pharmacist ready to chat at all times. You can sign-up to the service here – completely free!