It is better to take hyper-tension medication, if it is once a daily only, in the night time instead of morning, says a research.
According to the Hygia Chronotherapy Trial, published in the European Heart Journal recently, people who take BP medicine in one go at bedtime have better control of the disease and lower risk of death compared to those who take the medication in the morning.
The trial was conducted on 19,084 patients, monitoring them for over six years. As many as 292 doctors were involved in the project and they were been trained in ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, which involves patients wearing a special cuff that records blood pressure at regular intervals throughout the day and night.
The research found that patients who took their medication at bedtime had nearly half the risk (45% reduction) of dying from or suffering heart attacks, myocardial infarction, stroke, heart failure or requiring a procedure to unblock narrowed arteries (coronary revascularisation), compared to patients who took their medication on waking.
Between 2008 and 2018, 10,614 men and 8,470 women of Caucasian Spanish origin, aged 18 or over, who had been diagnosed with hypertension by means of ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, were recruited to the trial; they had to adhere to a routine of daytime activity and night-time sleep, which means that it is not possible to say if the study findings apply to people working night shifts.
