75 million adults in the US have high blood pressure.
That number is so high.
Seven in 10 of those adults with high blood pressure
take medication to treat it,
but could taking it at certain time of the day
actually save your life?
So a huge study of over 19,000 patients compared people
who took their BP medicine, their blood pressure medicine
at night versus those who took it in the morning,
when a lot of folks take it.
They found that those who took their meds at night
had a 66% decrease in the risk of death
from heart problems, et cetera,
and their risk of stroke went down by 49%
just by taking their medicine at night versus the morning.
We have cardiologist, Dr. Joel Kahn via Skype joining us.
Dr. Kahn what's your take on this study.
This is the Olympics.
This is the world Series of medical science.
I mean, this is 19,000 people in a randomized study,
followed very carefully for six years
and lo and behold the arteries in your brain,
your heart, throughout your body must just love
a slightly lower blood pressure during the night time hour.
'Cause these are huge and real numbers.
If you translate this in the United States
we're talking, you know, possibly hundreds
of thousands of strokes, heart attacks,
congestive heart failure episodes,
avoided by simply setting your phone alarm
to take all your blood pressure medicines at night time.
And I set my alarm so seven days a week
at 9:00 p.m. it can go off.
Is there a difference, Dr. Kahn,
in terms of what time in the evening?
Does it matter if it's early in the evening,
later before bed time?
Is there a difference?
Well, we don't know.
This was defined as bed time.
Mhmm.
And that will vary, and of course there's questions like
shift workers, should shift workers take it
before they go to bed even if it's 4:00 in the afternoon?
We don't have full data.
This was pertaining more to the person
on a more normal sleep schedule.
I love this study because this is an example
of really well-conducted science.
So it was a randomized trial, first of all.
Second of all, they made sure that the two populations
of people, the night time and the day time people,
were evenly distributed for obesity
and for diabetes, for the other risk factor.
And third of all, it wasn't done
in a cardiology office, like Dr. Kahn's.
It was done in primary care offices throughout this broad,
so it very much imitated what real life is
for most people with hypertension.
So I think this data is very applicable
to the general public today.
And I think you're eventually going to see
prescriptions that say, "Hey take these once a day."
It will ultimately say, "Take these once a day at bed time."
Night, yes.
And I think--
But some people
need twice a day blood pressure medication.
Yes.
That's true.
So I wanted to ask Dr. Kahn,
in the case of people who need twice a day
how do you adjust for that?
You're absolutely right,
and I think there's two with it.
If you're on an ARB twice a day, take it twice a day,
but maybe ask your doctor if you can get switched
to one of the once a day versions.
Yes.
And take it
all at night.
But yes--
And it's
as easy to make the switch too, right?
You just have to start a new routine
basically for night time, put it next to your tooth brush.
I saw you held up your tooth brush there.
Exactly.
Have an alarm.
Take your pills I say.
Yup.
Yeah.
What's interesting about this
is it's really part of a bigger thing called chronotherapy.
There's even evidence that chemotherapy administered
at different times during the day
is more efficacious and has fewer side effects.
Depending on the medication.
Depending on the medication.
And we do not know all of the reasons why,
but I think this is opening a new area of research
for us to consider because we know we have
changes in our hormone levels throughout the day and night,
and so I think we are going to continue to learn more.
But Dr. Kahn I think the takeaway
for anyone who does take blood pressure medication
is make sure you talk with your doctor about the best time
for you to take your medication because it truly may matter
and may change how long you live.
Wow.
That's good stuff.
Dr. Kahn thank you
as always for weighing in.
(audience applause)
Thank you.
Dr. Piro, really appreciate it.
Thank you.
