Hi everyone, Dr. Mike here. In this video we're going to go through a really quick and easy way to remember blood pressure medications. So what you need to know is this, A, B, C and D.
Now A stands for two types of antihypertensive meds. The first one you need to know is angiotensin converting. enzyme, also known as ACE inhibitors. The second type that starts with A also is angiotensin, but this is angiotensin 2 receptor blockers So they're the two that start with A that you need to remember. For B, we've got beta blockers.
For C, we have calcium channel blockers. also known as long-lasting calcium channel blockers, and for D, we have diuretics. And there's many different types of diuretics, but diuretics, but when we look at the diuretics used as antihypertensives, we're specifically referring to the thiazide diuretics or thiazide-like diuretics.
All right, so this is the quick and easy way to remember the mainstay antihypertensive medications, but how do you remember the... types of meds that sit within each of these categories. Well, for example, when we look at the ACE inhibitors, what you'll find is a lot of them end in pril. So a lot of the meds have the suffix pril. When we look at angiotensin 2 receptor blockers, a lot of the meds have the suffix sartin.
When we look at beta blockers, a lot of the meds have the suffix lol. When we look at calcium channel blockers, a lot of the meds have the suffix dipine or dipine. And then the thiazide diuretics or diuretics, while they're a bit tricky, they're more variable, but often they end in thiazide.
But there are others that do not end in thiazide. Now, very quickly... How do these blood pressure medications work?
Well, you need to know the blood pressure equation. Blood pressure equals cardiac output times systemic vascular resistance, also known as total peripheral resistance. What are these different things? Well, cardiac output is also known as heart rate times stroke volume, and systemic vascular resistance is the diameter of blood vessels. Okay, so ACE inhibitors stop the production of angiotensin 2. Angiotensin 2 does a bunch of things.
One thing that it does is it vasoconstricts. So it stops this. Therefore, stopping systemic...
vascular resistance from increasing, stops blood pressure from increasing, but it also stops blood volume increasing. That has to do with stroke volume. In addition to that, angiotensin II receptor blockers work similarly, stopping those two. Beta blockers stop the heart rate from beating so fast, so it's stopping heart rate here.
Calcium channel blockers stop the heart from beating so hard, this has to do with stroke volume as well, double cross. And diuretics reduce the amount of circulating fluid within the body, this also has to do with stroke volume as well. As you can see, all of these antihypertensive medications effect the blood pressure equation at some point, therefore effecting blood pressure and hopefully dropping it. So that's a nice quick.
an easy way to remember your antihypertensives.