Long-term eating amlodipine, these knowledge to understand

Hello everyone, I am Pharmacist Huaizhang, long-term friends who take amlodipine besylate tablets, all want to know how this drug exerts antihypertensive effect, how long does it take to take effect, how long does the efficacy of the drug last, when is it better to eat, what are the side effects and so on
.
If you or someone around you is taking amlodipine besylate tablets, this popular science article is very important to you, please be patient to read it
.

First, how to play the role of lowering blood pressure?

Amlodipine besylate tablets, as a third-generation calcium ion antagonist, are peripheral pulsating vasodilators that act directly on vascular smooth muscle by inhibiting calcium ions transmembrane into vascular smooth muscle and myocardium
.
Thereby reducing peripheral vascular resistance and blood pressure
.
In addition, amlodipine reduces the oxygen consumption of the myocardium by reducing peripheral vascular resistance, as well as being able to suppress coronary artery spasm
.

Therefore, in addition to the treatment of hypertension, amlodipine besylate tablets can also be used clinically for the symptomatic treatment of chronic stable angina pectoris and variant angina, and can also reduce the risk of hospitalization due to angina and reduce the risk of
coronary artery reconstruction.

2.
Onset of action and maintenance time

The effective dose of amlodipine besylate tablets is between 2.
5 mg and 10 mg once a day
.
Normally, the starting dose for hypertension is 5 mg, but for people who are small, weak, elderly or have hepatic insufficiency, the recommended starting dose is 2.
5 mg
.
The specific dosage to use is determined by the doctor according to your blood pressure level, individual response and target blood pressure, and cannot be increased or decreased by yourself
.

After taking the drug, the blood concentration peaks at 6 to 12 hours, the half-life is very long, about 30 to 50 hours, and it can maintain effective blood pressure
reduction for 24 hours after taking the drug.
In general, it takes 4-5 half-lives for the blood concentration to reach steady state, so it takes 7 to 8 days for the blood concentration of amlodipine to reach steady state, which means that it takes at least a week to control blood pressure smoothly, and the effect of reducing blood pressure to a greater extent is two to four weeks
after taking the drug.

Therefore, when you first start using amlodipine, blood pressure control is unstable, do not rush to change the dressing, give antihypertensive drugs a little time, and let your body slowly adapt.

Some people may ask, with such a long half-life, can I eat for a day and stop for a day? The answer is definitely no, because eating for a day and stopping for a day will lead to unstable blood concentrations, which may lead to unstable
blood pressure control.
Blood pressure fluctuates repeatedly, control is unstable, and the damage to the body is greater, which is worth the loss
.

Third, when to eat better

For most people, 8 to 10 a.
m.
and 14 p.
m.
to 16 p.
m.
are the two peaks of blood pressure, and zero to three o'clock in the morning are when blood pressure is lowest, and this blood pressure is called spoon blood pressure
.
Since it takes 6 to 12 hours for amlodipine to reach the peak of blood concentration, the sooner you get up in the morning, the better, and it is recommended that the time be relatively fixed
before 7 o'clock in the morning.
And food will not affect the efficacy of amlodipine, you can
eat it before or after meals.

For non-spoon hypertension, the ideal time to take medicine should be individualized, if the administration time can be determined according to the 24-hour blood pressure curve, especially for patients with unsatisfactory blood pressure control, 24-hour dynamic blood pressure monitoring should be done, and the doctor should adjust the medication time
.

4.
What are the side effects?

Common adverse reactions of amlodipine include ankle edema, rapid heartbeat, palpitations, dizziness, facial flushing, gum hyperplasia, and a small number of people may cause abnormal urination, similar to
prostatic hyperplasia.

Studies have shown that the greater the amount of amlodipine used, the higher
the probability of side effects.

In addition, many friends with high blood pressure, may take statin at the same time, and amlodipine is a weak inhibitor of Cyp3A, may increase the concentration of CYP3A substrate, when combined with simvastatin, will increase the exposure of simvastatin, and then increase the risk of simvastatin muscle and liver side effects, pay attention to the dosage of simvastatin, and limit the dose
below 20mg per day.

Is it clear to you?