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Extreme heat dose of blood pressure remedies and drinking volume adjust
Summer temperatures can be particularly challenging for people who are under treatment for heart or blood pressure problems. The heart has to work harder in the heat to cool the body. These patients should therefore have their remedy dosage checked by the doctor.
Heat beats heart patients a lot
The current summer temperatures are not fun for all people. Especially patients with hypertension and other cardiovascular diseases demand a lot from the heat. Possible consequences of high temperatures are tiredness and dizziness as well as hypotension up to circulatory collapse, as well as cardiac arrhythmia or muscle spasms. Experts therefore recommend that sufferers have their medication doses checked.
Patients who take blood pressure medicines or dehydrators should have the dosage checked regularly by the doctor. At high temperatures it may be necessary to adjust the dose. (Image: Henrik Dolle / fotolia.com) Check the dosage of medication regularly
Cardiac patients must take medication in most cases. Some medicines for the treatment of cardiovascular disease may require a change in dosage due to extreme heat, reports the German Heart Foundation in a recent release.
"Cardiac patients should therefore have their doctor regularly check the dosage and discuss which medications can be reduced for how long in the heat," says heart specialist Prof. Dr. med. med. Markus Haass from the Scientific Advisory Board of the German Heart Foundation.
It is not just about antihypertensive drugs for high blood pressure patients (ACE inhibitors, Sartane, calcium antagonists), but also for diuretics (dehydrator) for patients with heart failure.
Additional burden for the heart
Our heart needs to pump more blood through the body at high outside temperatures to lower body temperature. A healthy heart can easily cope with this additional burden. A sick heart, on the other hand, reaches its limits faster.
"Elderly people and, above all, patients with heart failure should therefore avoid the greatest possible heat, be physically careful and pay particular attention to dress in summer," said heart specialist Prof. Dr. med. med. Dietrich Andresen (Berlin) from the board of the German Heart Foundation.
Cooling works best with less clothing such as T-shirt, shorts, summer dress and avoid direct sunlight (eg by a headgear).
Increased sweating and drinking
The body also releases heat through sweat, but loses fluid and electrolytes (salts: sodium, potassium, magnesium): in very hot weather, one to two liters of fluid per day. Drinking is therefore so important to compensate for this fluid and salt loss.
"Healthy people automatically drink as much as they need to compensate for thirst. But in older or heart-ill people, the thirst can not be properly intact, so they do not drink enough and the fluid loss is not compensated, "warned Prof. Andresen.
"If in such a situation by an additional intake of water-drifting medications (diuretics), a greater fluid loss, the blood volume in the vessels decreases: the blood pressure drops and it can come, especially when getting up from a lying or sitting position to circulatory collapse with short-term unconsciousness. "
Danger due to excessive fluid intake
As well as the sweated salts are not sufficiently balanced, it comes to other symptoms such as headache, general fatigue but also muscle spasms and sometimes cardiac arrhythmia.
But how much water should we drink? According to the Heart Foundation, elderly people and patients with heart failure on hot days must be stopped drinking enough, plus one to two liters a day.
However, "enough" also means: not too much! Excessive fluid intake can cause cardiac output in cardiac patients to worsen, "says Prof. Andresen.
"Therefore, patients with heart disease should coordinate their drinking volume and also the medication intake with their supervising doctor. Daily weighing helps to set the required drinking volume. "(Ad)