Which came first, the chicken or the egg? If diuretics had been a panacea for curing hypertension, it is unlikely that drug companies would have taken on the financial risk of developing alternative classes of antihypertensive drugs. As previously discussed, diuretics alone are often inadequate for controlling hypertension and are contraindicated for, or are not [...]
Metabolic Effects
Chlorthalidone represents one of three different types of diuretics. Each type works in a slightly different way, but all diuretics lower the amount of salt and water in the body, thereby helping to reduce blood pressure. Diuretic treatments are not benign, and not every patient can tolerate them. As a class of drugs, diuretics [...]
Predictably, and with good reason, the outcomes of the Antihypertensive and Lipid-Lowering Treatment to Prevent Heart Attack Trial (the ALLHAT study), reported in late 2002, drew the interest of media journalists as well as the attention of the medical community and the health care industry. The nation’s leading newspapers and television networks scrambled to provide [...]