What are/is beta-blockers?
Answer: Beta blockers, also called beta-adrenergic blocking agents, treat a variety of conditions, such as big blood pressure, glaucoma and migraines. Find out more about this class of medication.
Beta blockers reduce blood pressure. Beta blockers work by blocking the effects of the hormone epinephrine, also prearranged as adrenaline. As a result, the heart beats more slowly and with smaller number force, thereby reducing blood pressure. Beta blockers also help blood vessels relax and overt up to improve blood flow.
Beta blockers (sometimes written as β-blocker) are a class of drugs used for various indications, but extremely for the management of cardiac arrhythmias and cardioprotection after myocardial infarction. Whilst once first-line treatment for hypertension, their role was downgraded contained by June 2006 in the United Kingdom to fourth-line as they did not perform as very well as other drugs, particularly in the elderly next to erectile dysfunction and anal seepage, and there is increasing evidence that the most frequently used beta-blockers especially in combination near thiazide-type diuretics carry an unacceptable risk of provoking type 2 diabetes. However, Forest Laboratories and Mylan Inc. announced on December 18, 2007 the innovative beta blocker Bystolic was approved by the FDA for treatment of hypertension. Beta blockers are a class of drugs that block beta-adrenergic substances such as adrenaline (epinephrine), a key agent contained by the "sympathetic" portion of the autonomic (involuntary) nervous system which controls many key organs and tissues in the body including the heart, blood vessels, and nouns passages in the lung.
By blocking the doings of the involuntary nervous system on the heart, beta blockers relieve stress on the heart. They slow the heart beat and lessen the force near which the heart muscle contracts. They also reduce the force with which muscles surrounding blood vessel contract surrounded by the heart, brain, and throughout the body. This reduces the pressure in the blood vessel and/or increases the flow of blood.
Beta blockers can serve to treat abnormal heart rhythms (cardiac arrhythmias). They are used specifically to prevent abnormally express heart rates (tachycardias) or irregular heart rhythms such as premature ventricular beats.
Beta blockers reduce the workload of the heart and thereby the constraint of the heart muscle for oxygen. Since the chest pain of angina pectoris occurs when the oxygen emergency of the heart exceeds the supply, beta blockers can be useful in treating angina by reducing the involve of the heart for oxygen. They also have become an important drug contained by improving survival after a person have had a heart attack.
Thanks to their effect on blood vessels, beta blockers can lower the blood pressure and be of importance in the treatment of hypertension (high blood pressure).
Other uses for beta blockers include the prevention of migraine headaches, stage fright (social phobia), and the treatment of guaranteed types of tremors (familial or hereditary essential tremors).
The beta blockers (with brand names) include:
metoprolol (Lopressor, Lopressor LA, Toprol XL),
timolol (Blocadren) and
Beta blockers are also available in combination beside a diuretic [for example, bisoprolol and hydrochlorothiazide (Ziac)].
Beta blockers reduce the pressure within the eye (the intraocular pressure), probably by reducing the production of the solution (aqueous humor) within the eye and so are used to lessen the risk of damage to the optic fortitude and loss of vision in glaucoma. Beta blocker preparations for this purpose include:
timolol ophthalmic solution (Timoptic), and
betaxolol hydrochloride (Betoptic, Betoptic S)..
I be prescribed Toporol. It works like a charm. I tried changing to a calcium blocker and my blood pressure go right back up. I guess it all depends on the problem. Good luck!