Cold Medicine for People with High Blood Pressure

It's a common misconception that over-the-counter medications are completely safe. Medicines are rated as safe for those who are healthy and take no medications, but for those with conditions such as hypertension, complications and side effects are both more common and more severe. If you have high blood pressure, that doesn't mean you need to suffer through a cold without taking anything, though. It just means you need to be particularly careful about which medicines you take.

There are two reasons that those with hypertension need to be careful about taking hbp nighttime cold medicine. For one, the ingredients in cold medicine might raise your blood pressure, often without obvious symptoms. This side effect is usually not problematic for those with healthy blood pressure levels, but if you have hypertension already, increases of even a small amount can be dangerous. Second, some cold medicine ingredients can interfere with your high blood pressure medicine, limiting the effectiveness of the cold medicine, the blood pressure medicine, or both. Most cold medicines involve a cocktail of active ingredients to treat the many symptoms associated with colds. The two ingredients that people with hypertension need to be most concerned with are decongestants and pain relievers.

Decongestants work by constricting blood vessels in the nasal passages. This makes you feel less congested by reducing swelling in the area which makes it easier for air to pass through the nasal passages. This effect isn't necessarily localized in the nose and head, though. In other words, decongestants can also constrict the blood vessels elsewhere in your body and this constriction will elevate blood pressure.

The other dangerous ingredient are NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs). NSAIDs are often included in cold medicines to relieve pain, as this is often a symptom of congestion. One of the common side effects of NSAIDs is water retention, which, in turn, elevates blood pressure. Your doctor may have already advised you against taking NSAIDs like ibuprofen and aspirin and this extends to cold medicines that contain those ingredients. Note that not all over-the-counter pain medicines are NSAIDs, so a cold medicine that used acetaminophen would not have the same effect.

There are cough medicine for high blood pressure that do not contain decongestants or NSAIDs and those that are designed specifically for people with hypertension. Keep in mind that cold medicines that do not interact with your blood pressure medications may interact with other medicines you take regularly. All patients who take any prescription medications need to speak with their doctors before taking any over-the-counter medicines. It's important that your doctor know which medicines you are taking in addition to the ones he or she has prescribed as many medications can have conflicts with each other. At your next regular visit, talk to your doctor about common over-the-counter medications to find out which ones are safe for you to use.