Why two common blood pressure drugs should never be taken together

If you’re taking prescription drugs to treat high blood pressure, there’s an important risk you need to know about.

I’m talking about a very real threat of kidney failure… dialysis… and even a fatal heart rhythm disorder, just from taking two of the most popular meds on the market.

Now, if you lived in Paris, London or Rome, your doctor would have already been alerted. Same with Niagara Falls…if you lived on the Canadian side.

In fact, doctors and patients in all the European Union countries and Canada have already been told that combining an ARB blood pressure drug with one called an ACE inhibitor can be deadly.

But our government is still refusing to warn you or your doctor — and a shocking, newly released document finally explains why.

They’re waiting for more people to die first.

Dragging their feet

Dr. Franz Messerli has spent six years banging his head against the wall.

Messerli helped found the American Society of Hypertension. He’s authored more than 600 scientific papers and is considered one of the top blood pressure experts in the world.

And he can’t get his own government to listen to him.

Messerli first proved in 2009 that combining angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) with angiotensin-converting-enzyme (ACE) inhibitors can be fatal. He proved it again in a study published two years ago.

When the drugs are used together (as they often are in America), they can cause hyperkalemia — a super-high level of potassium that can send your heart into a deadly arrhythmia. The drug duo can also trigger dangerously low blood pressure and kidney failure that could leave you on dialysis.

That’s been enough for the rest of the world to act. European drug authorities have issued warnings about the medication combo.

The Canadian version of the FDA, Health Canada, forced drug labels to be changed so doctors and patients would know about the risks.

And the Canadian Heart & Stroke Foundation issued a national press release warning that the drug combination was damaging to your kidneys and that there was no benefit to taking ARBs and ACE inhibitors together.

“There is a synergy that happens when you use this particular drug combination but, unfortunately, it is not a synergy that benefits patients,” kidney specialist Dr. Sheldon Tobe warned in the release.

But while the rest of the world has sprung to action, Messerli says the FDA has been “dragging its feet” and allowing “thousands of patients to be exposed to these potentially harmful combination therapies.”

The FDA recently rejected a petition asking for a black box label or a simple letter to doctors warning about combining ARBs and ACE inhibitors. In a stunning and arrogant 15-page response, the agency made clear that it’s well aware of the dangers of combining the drugs.

But it has no intention of doing anything.

Calling it “well established” that using ARBs and ACE inhibitors together can cause hyperkalemia and kidney damage, the FDA said it wasn’t acting because the “magnitudes of the increases are not significant enough.”

Translation? The FDA understands that the drug combination is risky – and potentially fatal – but they’re not going to issue warnings until enough people are harmed or killed. Not until some magical number or threshold is crossed.

Let’s not wait around for that. Check the generic name of any blood pressure medications you’re on. If the name ends in “sartan,” such as azilsartan, candesartan or irbesartan, it’s an ARB.

If the drug name ends in “pril,” like benazepril or captopril, it’s an ACE inhibitor

And if you find that you’re currently taking more than one of these drugs, it’s urgent that you speak with your doctor as soon as possible about ditching one. Just like a lot of Canadians and Europeans did…years ago.

Sources:

“FDA wrong to deny Public Citizen’s petition for black box warning on combined use of blood pressure medications” Public Citizen, April 8, 2015, citizen.org

“Blood pressure drug combos that could be lethal” The People’s Pharmacy, April 23, 2015, peoplespharmacy.com