What Doctors Don't Tell YouAnother study has found that short acting calcium antagonists used to prevent heart attacks are dangerous if given to patients with high blood pressure. The long acting kind did not have the same effect, researchers have found.
Patients on short acting antagonists were nearly four times as likely to suffer a serious reaction, and possibly death, compared to those given long acting drugs.
The discovery of a major difference between the two types of calcium antagonists is an important one, but the researchers were quick to point out that their findings did not mean that the long acting agents were necessarily safe (The Lancet, 1997; 349: 594-8).
Daniel Redwood DC
Tom Ferguson MD
