Your Daily Medication Can Turn Dangerous... "Exercise Caution During Heatwaves"

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Even medications you take every day require extra caution in this kind of weather. In particular, blood pressure medications that dilate blood vessels can cause side effects.

Reporter Han Sung-hee explains.

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[Here is your blood pressure medication, I have prescribed it for you.]

Yeo Hyun-sook, a 63-year-old who regularly takes blood pressure medication, recently visited the hospital after experiencing severe dizziness.

[Yeo Hyun-sook / Suji-gu, Yongin, Gyeonggi Province: When I got up from the bed, the room started spinning wildly. So I couldn't get up and had to lie back down. I felt nauseous, like I was going to throw up...]

As of 2023, the number of patients prescribed blood pressure medication for more than 290 days a year reached 8.31 million.

Most blood pressure medications lower blood pressure by dilating blood vessels or reducing blood volume through diuretic effects that eliminate moisture from the body.

The problem is during extreme heatwaves.

When blood volume has already decreased because the body sweats to expel water, taking blood pressure medication further reduces blood volume doubly, which can instead trigger hypotension.

[Won Byeong-seop / Suji-gu, Yongin, Gyeonggi Province: (Lately) when I measure my blood pressure, it drops sharply. It drops quite a lot, so I thought it was strange...]

[Oh In-seok / Vice Chairman, Korean Pharmaceutical Association: Many of the symptoms that appear as signs of hypotension are very uncomfortable. Your body naturally realizes it. You feel nauseous, lethargic, as if 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 a little salt in the short term can be helpful.

[Park Min-sun / Professor of Family Medicine, Seoul National University Hospital: When you feel 'extremely drained of energy,' soaking fruit in salt water slightly and eating it raises both blood pressure and blood sugar, allowing you to recover a bit more quickly.]

Caution is also required during heatwaves when taking 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. Since each medication operates on different principles, it is better to determine the dosage and whether to continue taking it through consultation rather than arbitrarily stopping the medication.

(Reported by Kim Hak-mo and Kang Dong-chul | Video edited by Kim Jun-hee | Design by Seo Seung-hyun)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.