Do anti-hypertensive drugs act on men and women in the same manner? A team of researchers from Australia report that, vast ranges of treatments for hypertension have same effects, irrespective of the sexes.

Dr. Fiona from Sydney said collective data from 31 previous studies involving 103,268 men and 87,349 women who voluntarily took part in anti-hypertensive treatment trials.

Blood pressure reductions were analogous between the sexes for almost all of the treatment comparisons, the team reports.

Researchers also analyzed that, total of 6,586 strokes, 9,400 cardiovascular events and 3,522 cases of congestive heart failure were recorded during the trials.

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A large study on the high blood pressure treatment reveals that, treatment with the benazepril (ACE inhibitor) in combination with amlodipine (calcium channel blocker) provides better control on hypertension than treatment with benazepril plus hydrochlorothiazide (diuretic), in reducing the death rate due to cardiovascular diseases.

In this specific randomized, double-blind study, 11,506 hypertensive patients with high risk for heart problems were assigned to the above mentioned combinations.

Both combinations showed excellent rate for anti-hypertensive activity, the researchers noticed. However, obvious difference between-group was in the initial outcome. Death due to cardiovascular causes, led to early execution of the trial, within 36months.

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Prevalence of Heart Disease

As well all know, obesity give raise to many health problem such as diabetes, arthritis and heart disease. According to the researches, cardiovascular diseases are the foremost cause of death in the U.S. In 2002, around 700,000 people died due to accumulative heart disease, nearly half of them were women. This information means that about 30% total U.S. deaths were due to heart disease.

With this information you can understand the evilness of obesity and the need of weight loss pills. American Heart Association (AHA) has already declared the heart diseases as the leading killer of adult females since 1908.

Heart problems

A number of abnormal conditions affect the heart and the vessels provide blood to the heart. Heart diseases include cardiac arrest, chronic artery disease and arrhythmia. The most well known form of heart disease is coronary artery disease (CAD), in which plaque narrow or completely blocks the coronary artery which is the leading cause of heart attack.

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Beta-blocker, time-tested drug used to lower heart rate has been shown to have beneficial effects in patients with myocardial Infarction (MI) and heart failure, but a new research indicates that this is always not the case in patients with high blood pressure.

A critical analysis of nine randomized trials, including almost 70,000 hypertensive patients, illustrates that reduction in heart rate due to beta-blockers, increases the risks of all-cause death, cardiovascular death, MI, stroke, and heart failure (p < 0.0001 for all).

Dr. Franz H. Messerli, from Columbia University, said that “pharmacologically induced bradycardia may lead to dyssynchrony between outgoing and reflected pulse wave, thereby increasing central aortic pressure and the hemodynamic burden to the target organs.”

A total of 22 randomized controlled trials were recognized, of which 9 included heart rate data. All told, 34,096 patients received beta-blockers, 30,139 received other antihypertensive drugs, and 3987 received placebo.

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