[Anchor]
Amid the current heat wave, it is advisable to take a second look at medications you take every day. In particular, high blood pressure medications that dilate blood vessels can induce dizziness.
Reporter Han Sung-hee has the details.
[Reporter]
[These are the blood pressure medications I prescribed for you.]
Yeo Hyun-suk, a 63-year-old who regularly takes high blood pressure medication, recently visited the hospital due to increasingly severe dizziness.
[Yeo Hyun-suk / Suji-gu, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi Province: When I got up from the bed, everything spun around. So I couldn't get up and lay back down. My stomach felt nauseous, like I was going to vomit...]br>
As of 2023, the number of patients prescribed high blood pressure medication for 290 days or more a year reached 8.31 million.
Most high blood pressure medications lower blood pressure by dilating blood vessels or reducing blood volume through diuretic effects that excrete water from the body.
The problem arises during heat waves.
When our body sweats to excrete moisture and blood volume is already reduced, taking blood pressure medication can cause a double reduction in blood volume, potentially leading to hypotension instead.
[Won Byung-seop / Suji-gu, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi Province: When I measure my blood pressure (these days), it drops sharply. It drops quite a lot, so I thought it was strange...]br>
[Oh In-seok / Vice Chairman, Korean Pharmaceutical Association: Many of the symptoms that appear as signs of hypotension are very uncomfortable. Your body realizes it on its own. You feel nauseous, lethargic, like the ground is sinking, and dizzy.]
If blood pressure drops suddenly, dizziness increases the risk of accidents such as falls.
Even for hypertension patients, consuming salt in the short term can be helpful.
[Park Min-sun / Professor, Department of Family Medicine, Seoul National University Hospital: When you feel like you have no energy at all, soaking fruit in slightly salted water and eating it raises both blood pressure and blood sugar, allowing you to recover a bit more quickly.]
Caution is also required during heat waves for diabetes medications that cause dehydration by excreting sugar through urine, antidepressants that impair body temperature regulation functions, and prostate enlargement medications that dilate blood vessels.
If abnormal symptoms appear, you should consult medical staff immediately. Because each medication has a different mechanism of action, it is better to decide on the dosage and whether to continue taking it through consultation rather than stopping medication arbitrarily.
(Video reporting: Kim Hak-mo, Kang Dong-chul | Video editing: Kim Jun-hee | Design: Seo Seung-hyun)
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