A new study has found that those who take blood pressure meds before going to bed have fewer chances of developing type 2 diabetes, compared to those ho take their drugs in the morning.
• How hypertension patients can best protect themselves from developing type 2 diabetes.
• The benefits of taking blood pressure meds at night, rather than in the morning.
• The results of the clinical trials.
Several recent studies carried out by the same team of Spanish researchers have indicated that hypertension patients who fail to lower their blood pressure levels significantly during sleep are in high danger of developing type 2 diabetes, as well as cardiovascular disease.
After noticing this pattern, the field experts did not take long to theorize that giving patients meds to help them control their blood pressure may be the answer to preventing, or at least delaying, the onset of type 2 diabetes.
For the new study, the research team conducted a large clinical trial that confirmed their theory. Best part about the discovery is that it’s a simple, accessible approach to controlling blood pressure levels – patients simply have to take their regular hypertension drugs before going to bed. Whether these drugs are ACE inhibitors, beta blockers, or angiotensin-receptor blockers, does not seem to matter.
The of Spanish researchers then conducted a second trial which focused on subjects whose blood pressure didn’t go down while they were resting, and subjects whose blood pressure levels only went down briefly or shallowly.
They found that individuals in either of these situations had more chances of developing type 2 diabetes, compared to subjects who experienced a deep and sustained drop in blood pressure levels while they were resting.
Generally, the results showed that subjects who took their blood pressure meds at night experienced a deeper and more sustained drop in blood pressure levels while they were resting than subjects who took their blood pressure meds in the morning. But there weren’t any more complains about meds among subjects who took their drugs at night than there were among subjects who took their drugs in the morning.
What’s more, the benefit of taking blood pressure drugs at nigh has long germ implications. The research team followed their subjects for about six (6) years and concluded that 12.1 percent (12.1%) out of all the 1.029 subjects who were told to take their blood pressure meds in the morning ended up developing type 2 diabetes sooner or later.
But only 4.8 percent (4.8%) out of all the 983 subjects who were told to take their blood pressure meds at night ended up developing type 2 diabetes sooner or later.
The results showed that when a subject switched from taking blood pressure meds in the morning to taking them at night, their chances of developing type 2 diabetes dropped by 57 percent (57%). These results stayed the same even after the research team took into account risk factors such as waist circumference, fasting glucose, or the presence / absence of chronic kidney disease.
The findings were published earlier this week, on Wednesday (September 23, 2015), in the medical journal Diabetologia.
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