Clipping Board » Medical Myths ─ The truth about healthcare is often different from what you intuitively think.
【United Online Planning / Excerpted and compiled from the book "Relying Only on Blood Pressure Medication is a Death Sentence"】2012.07.24
While the current medical community largely uses blood pressure-lowering drugs as the standard treatment for preventing and treating heart failure, an increasing number of studies have surprisingly found that these drugs actually *increase mortality rates* among the elderly!
### Blood Pressure Medications Increase Mortality
A few years ago, an international journal specializing in cardiology (*J Card Fail*, 2002) conducted a study on over 5,000 patients with hypertension and heart weakness. The results unexpectedly revealed that those using two types of blood pressure medications simultaneously had a *42% higher mortality rate*! After years of further in-depth research, another international cardiology journal (*Int J Cardiol*, 2011) also found that long-term use of blood pressure medications (beta-blockers), particularly in patients with poor cardiac ejection fraction, led to a *49% increase in mortality*!
Not only that, similar findings have been reported worldwide. In July of last year, a South Korean study involving 3,200 heart failure patients under care also discovered that those taking beta-blockers had a significantly higher mortality rate. Sweden, a Nordic welfare state, conducted an eight-year study and found that elderly individuals who took blood pressure-lowering drugs (ACE inhibitors) long-term actually experienced more cardiovascular issues and higher mortality rates! These findings have since been published in various medical journals (*Korean Circ J*, 2011; *Eur J Endocrinol*, 2011).
### The Vicious Cycle of Symptomatic Treatment
Why do the blood pressure medications we’ve long relied on worsen heart failure and even accelerate death? The problem lies in the current medical approach to this condition: *delaying*—focusing on prolonging the patient’s lifespan and improving their quality of life. As a result, most treatments aim to reduce the heart’s workload while ignoring the underlying issue of myocardial weakness. This is why blood pressure medications have become the long-term choice for these patients. But does this purely symptomatic strategy—merely reducing the heart’s burden while neglecting the body’s actual needs—truly help patients survive, or does it backfire?
### Reversal and Suppression
When the heart suffers from insufficient oxygen supply due to various factors, the body releases norepinephrine, instructing the coronary arteries to relax while constricting other blood vessels and increasing heart rate to balance blood pressure. However, this mechanism is disrupted by blood pressure-lowering drugs like beta-blockers. These medications cause blood vessels that should constrict to remain dilated, reducing blood flow back to the heart. More critically, they force the coronary arteries—which should expand—to constrict instead, making it even harder for blood to enter the heart.
### Starving the Horse While Expecting It to Run
As the heart’s pumping ability weakens, the body compensates by increasing heart rate to make up for the lost blood flow and pressure. The problem is that these blood pressure medications forcibly slow the heart rate, leaving the heart in a *weak and powerless* state. After being subjected to this "starve the horse while expecting it to run" drug strategy, cells inevitably deteriorate much faster!
【This article is reproduced from Dr. Chen Zhiming’s 2012 book *Relying Only on Blood Pressure Medication is a Death Sentence*, published by Microscope Culture.】
Source: http://udn. com/ NEWS/ NATIONAL/ AD1/ 7245573. shtml#ixzz21h6ioyg9
Long-term Use of Blood Pressure Drugs May Increase Mortality in Elderly
While the current medical community largely uses blood pressure-lowering drugs as the standard treatment for preventing and treating heart failure, an increasing number of studies have surprisingly found that these drugs actually *increase mortality rates* among the elderly!
### Blood Pressure Medications Increase Mortality
A few years ago, an international journal specializing in cardiology (*J Card Fail*, 2002) conducted a study on over 5,000 patients with hypertension and heart weakness. The results unexpectedly revealed that those using two types of blood pressure medications simultaneously had a *42% higher mortality rate*! After years of further in-depth research, another international cardiology journal (*Int J Cardiol*, 2011) also found that long-term use of blood pressure medications (beta-blockers), particularly in patients with poor cardiac ejection fraction, led to a *49% increase in mortality*!
Not only that, similar findings have been reported worldwide. In July of last year, a South Korean study involving 3,200 heart failure patients under care also discovered that those taking beta-blockers had a significantly higher mortality rate. Sweden, a Nordic welfare state, conducted an eight-year study and found that elderly individuals who took blood pressure-lowering drugs (ACE inhibitors) long-term actually experienced more cardiovascular issues and higher mortality rates! These findings have since been published in various medical journals (*Korean Circ J*, 2011; *Eur J Endocrinol*, 2011).
### The Vicious Cycle of Symptomatic Treatment
Why do the blood pressure medications we’ve long relied on worsen heart failure and even accelerate death? The problem lies in the current medical approach to this condition: *delaying*—focusing on prolonging the patient’s lifespan and improving their quality of life. As a result, most treatments aim to reduce the heart’s workload while ignoring the underlying issue of myocardial weakness. This is why blood pressure medications have become the long-term choice for these patients. But does this purely symptomatic strategy—merely reducing the heart’s burden while neglecting the body’s actual needs—truly help patients survive, or does it backfire?
### Reversal and Suppression
When the heart suffers from insufficient oxygen supply due to various factors, the body releases norepinephrine, instructing the coronary arteries to relax while constricting other blood vessels and increasing heart rate to balance blood pressure. However, this mechanism is disrupted by blood pressure-lowering drugs like beta-blockers. These medications cause blood vessels that should constrict to remain dilated, reducing blood flow back to the heart. More critically, they force the coronary arteries—which should expand—to constrict instead, making it even harder for blood to enter the heart.
### Starving the Horse While Expecting It to Run
As the heart’s pumping ability weakens, the body compensates by increasing heart rate to make up for the lost blood flow and pressure. The problem is that these blood pressure medications forcibly slow the heart rate, leaving the heart in a *weak and powerless* state. After being subjected to this "starve the horse while expecting it to run" drug strategy, cells inevitably deteriorate much faster!
【This article is reproduced from Dr. Chen Zhiming’s 2012 book *Relying Only on Blood Pressure Medication is a Death Sentence*, published by Microscope Culture.】
Source: http://udn. com/ NEWS/ NATIONAL/ AD1/ 7245573. shtml#ixzz21h6ioyg9