What medications are used to treat coronary heart disease?
Medications are prescribed according to the nature of the patient’s CHD and other problems. The symptoms of angina can generally be controlled by “beta-blocker” drugs that decrease the workload on the heart, by nitroglycerine and other “nitrates” and by “calcium-channel blockers” that relax the arteries, and by other classes of drugs. The tendency to form clots is reduced by aspirin or by other platelet inhibitory and anticoagulant drugs. Beta-blockers are given to decrease the recurrence of heart attack. For those with elevated blood cholesterol that is unresponsive to dietary and weight loss measures, cholesterol-lowering drugs may be prescribed, such as lovastatin, colestipol, cholestyramine, gemfibrozil, and niacin. Impaired pumping function of the heart may be treated with digitalis drugs or ACE inhibitors. If there is high blood pressure or fluid retention, these conditions are also treated. Ask your doctor which medication you are taking, what it does, and whether there are any
