Being Heart Healthy With Amlodipine

Amlodipine (Norvasc) is a long acting calcium channel blocker used in the treatment of high blood pressure and coronary artery disease. Amlodipine works by relaxing the smooth muscle in the arterial walls, decreasing the resistance in blood flow to the heart and thus decreasing pressure. Amlodipine is one of the many drugs available for controlling blood pressure. When relaxation and meditation aren’t enough, calcium channel blockers are there to help.

Amlodipine Side Effects

Amlodipine is not perfect. There are side effects associated with using this drug. The most common side effects include swelling of the tissue in your lower limbs (peripheral edema), fatigue, dizziness, stomach pains, muscle aches and nausea. The worst rare side effect I have read about which mostly involves men is gynecomastia. This is a big word to say abnormal development of breasts in men. Before you start panicking and thinking you are going to get C cups, there are various degrees of gynecomastia. They range from slight larger areolas to increased breast size. This does not happen overnight and may I remind you that it is rare. Weight loss and a good diet can counteract these effects. Then again, if you did ate well and exercised, you might not have to take Amlodipine to begin with.

The Joint Effort with Amlodipine

Amlodipine has been paired up with other drugs to control high blood pressure. Chemically, it is a nice drug to pair up. Two main examples are Amlodipine/Valsartan (Diovan) and Amlodipine/Atorvastatin (Caduet). These drug combinations work well together. Let’s start with Amlodipine/Valsartan which are two high blood pressure drug medications. Valsartan is an angiotensin receptor blocker which basically means it reduces the chemicals that tighten (constrict) the artery walls. Think of it like your shower head, the smaller the holes on the shower head, the higher the water pressure and vice versa. The side effects to this combo drug are similar to Amlodipine side effects except that there is a bit of controversy concerning Valsartan. It is currently being studied to determine if there is a greater risk of heart attacks with use of Valsartan. I will keep you informed once the study is complete.

The second example is Amlodipine/Atorvastatin. It works differently than Amlodipine/Valsartan. Atorvastatin (Lipitor) is a statin drug the helps reduce cholesterol by reducing plaques in your blood that attach to the arterial wall. So instead of 2 drugs relaxing the artery walls, you get one drug to relax the artery walls and another to reduce the plaque that builds up along the artery walls. This creates a nice easy blood flow throughout the body. If you want to know more about Atorvastatin side effects, see the post on this site. Has your doctor prescribed one of these combination drugs?