A study has discovered that people consuming blood pressure medication have a better control over the blood pressure with a considerably lower risk of heart and blood vessel-related problems compared to people who consume their medications in the morning.
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Dubbed the Hygia Chronotherapy Trial, it was published in the European Heart Journal. The study asked 19,084 patients (10614 men and 8470 women) randomly to take their pills either when they wake up or when they're about to go to bed, and kept a track on them for more than six years on average. During this, they were asked to be active during daytime and sleep during night-time.
Doctors analysed the patients' blood pressure the moment they joined the study and at each subsequent visit to the clinic. They conducted an ambulatory blood pressure monitoring over a 48-hour period every clinic visit, at least once a year. This gave doctors a concrete data on average blood pressures over a 48 hour period while also showing if the pressure decreased considerably while sleeping.
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In an average of 6.3 years follow-up, 1752 patients died from heart or blood vessel problems, or experienced myocardial infarction, stroke, heart failure or coronary revascularisation. Data collected from ambulatory blood pressure monitoring revealed that patients taking their medication at bedtime had a considerably lower average blood pressure at night as well as in the day.
Moreover, their blood pressure dipped more at night, when compared with patients who consumed their medication while waking up. A considerable decrease in night-time systolic blood pressure during the follow-up period was a crucial indicator of a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease.
The researchers found that patients who consumed their medications at night slashed the risk of heart attacks, myocardial infarction, stroke etc by 45 percent, compared to patients who took their medications upon waking up.
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They also took into account factors that could affect the results like sex, age, type-2 diabetes, cholesterol levels, smoking habits and kidney health.
According to Professor Ramón C. Hermida, Director of the Bioengineering and Chronobiology Labs at the University of Vigo, Spain, "The results of this study show that patients who routinely take their anti-hypertensive medication at bedtime, as opposed to when they wake up, have better-controlled blood pressure and, most importantly, a significantly decreased risk of death or illness from heart and blood vessel problems."