Code Red: ACE Inhibitors Can Double Death Risk

If you or someone you love is about to undergo heart surgery, you need to know about a very real – and avoidable – lethal danger you may be facing.

A just-published British study found that taking ACE inhibitors can double your death risk if you undergo CABG surgery (coronary artery bypass graft). And since these are very commonly prescribed blood pressure drugs, that’s a very likely scenario, placing you in grave danger.

The researchers’ recommendation: Stop taking ACE inhibitors for 2-5 days before the surgery, then start them up again a few days after the operation. But I wonder if that’s the advice they’d give someone they cared about.

Because with all the adverse events linked to these drugs on any given day – such as kidney failure (potentially fatal), hyperkalemia (potentially fatal potassium overload), and angioedema (swollen tissue beneath the skin which can lead to fatal airway blockage) – you may want to find another way all together to deal with high blood pressure, one that doesn’t put you in constant danger.