Fight Heart Disease with Affordable Prescription Drugs from Canada

Here’s good news for your wallet. If the high cost of medication in the United States is breaking your budget, you can fight heart disease with affordable prescription drugs from Canada

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both women and men in the United States according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Research has shown that lowering your high blood cholesterol and high blood pressure can reduce the risk of you dying of heart disease or needing heart bypass surgery. Millions of Americans also have diabetes which increases the chance of developing high blood pressure (hypertension), which could lead to a heart attack. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of diabetes-related death

More good news is that some risk factors leading to heart disease, such as smoking, poor diet and lack of exercise are controllable. Obviously there are other risk factors such as age, gender, ethnicity, and family history that can not be controlled.

However, luckily there are medications that your doctor can prescribe for you to help lower high blood pressure and high cholesterol which otherwise could lead to heart disease. There are also medications to treat heart disease symptoms, such as arrhythmias (abnormal heart rhythms) and angina (chest pain that occurs when the heart muscle is not getting enough blood.)

There are eight types of medications that doctors prescribe to treat high blood pressure:

(brand names are in parenthesis)

1. Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACE): captopril (Capoten), benazepril (Lotensin), enalapril (Vasotec), lisinopril (Prinivil, Zestril) fosinopril (Monopril), ramipril (Altace), perindopril (Aceon), quinapril (Accupril),moexipril (Univasc), and trandolapril (Mavik)

2. Angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs): candesartan (Atacand), eprosartan (Tevetan), irbesartan (Avapro), telmisartan (Mycardis), valsartan (Diovan), and losartan (Cozaar)

3. Alpha-blockers: terazosin (Hytrin) and doxazosin (Cardura).

4. Beta-blockers: acebutolol (Sectral), atenolol (Tenormin), bisoprolol (Zebeta), metoprolol (Lopressor, Lopressor LA, Toprol XL), nadolol (Corgard), and timolol (Blocadren

5. Diuretics: hydrochlorothiazide (Hydrodiuril), furosemide (Lasix) and torsemide (Demadex), a combination of triamterene and hydrochlorothiazide (Dyazide), and metolazone (Zaroxolyn).

6. Calcium channel blockers (CCBs): amlodipine (Norvasc), sustained release nifedipine (Procardia XL, Adalat CC), felodipine (Plendil), and nisoldipine (Sular)

7. Central alpha agonist: Clonidine (Catapres)

8. Muscle relaxant: Minoxidil – a peripheral vascular smooth muscle vasodilator. This medication is usually reserved for patients with high blood pressure who do not respond to other treatment.

High Cholesterol is treated with prescription drugs called statins: (Lipitor), (Pravachol), (Zocor), (Lescol), (Crestor), and (Altocor) lower LDL [high-density lipoproteins -so called bad cholesterol] and raise HDL [high-density lipoproteins-good cholesterol].

Abnormal heart rhythms, called arrhythmias, are treated with one of two of the medications used to treat high blood pressure.

– Beta-blockers: acebutolol (Sectral), atenolol (Tenormin), bisoprolol (Zebeta), metoprolol (Lopressor, Lopressor LA, Toprol XL), nadolol (Corgard), and timolol (Blocadren)

– Calcium channel blockers (CCBs): amlodipine (Norvasc), sustained release nifedipine (Procardia XL, Adalat CC), felodipine (Plendil), and nisoldipine (Sular).

Another prescription drug called digoxin is also used to treat arrhythmias. Digoxin is also known as (Digitek), (Lanoxin),(Lanoxicaps), (Digitaline), and (Novo-Digoxin.)

The most common medication that is prescribed to control symptoms of angina is nitrate medication, such as nitroglycerin tablets.

LESSEN YOUR RISK OF DYING OF HEART DISEASE

After your doctor prescribes your medication to prevent heart disease or treat the symptoms of heart disease, the rest is up to you. To lessen the risk that you will die of heart disease:

1. Take your prescribed medication correctly. According to the U. S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 30 to 50 percent of patients fail to follow instructions for taking a medication.

2. Many patients -14 to 21 percent – never fill their original prescription. That frequently is because of the high cost of many medications in the United States. Senior citizens on a limited income in the U.S. sometimes have to choose between eating or buying prescription medication that they need.

3. The high cost of prescription drugs also accounts for about two-thirds of chronically ill adults in the United States cutting back on their medications.

One solution to the problem of the high cost of prescription drugs in the U.S. is to buy your medication from much less expensive Canadian pharmacies. It is easy to buy prescription drugs online at the discount prices offered by pharmacies in Canada.

Surveys released when the state of Minnesota launched its groundbreaking Canadian prescription drug program revealed a remarkable 62 percent savings on commonly prescribed prescription medications. For some medications the savings can be as great as 80 percent when you buy prescription drugs from a Canadian pharmacy. .

So it makes sense to buy from licensed Canadian pharmacies to get affordable, safe and effective medications. The Canadian Ministry of Health oversees the sale of prescription drugs in the country. Health Canada is the federal regulatory agency.