Now, keep up to date
with daily feeds of newly posted stories
about America's Seniors...click on the box
to the left
Potassium
loss from Blood Pressure Drugs may explain
higher risk of Adult Diabetes
Newswise — Johns Hopkins researchers have
discovered that a drop in blood potassium
levels caused by diuretics commonly
prescribed for high blood pressure could be
the reason why people on those drugs are at
risk for developing type 2 diabetes.
The drugs helpfully accelerate loss of
fluids, but also deplete important
chemicals, including potassium, so that
those who take them are generally advised to
eat bananas and other potassium-rich foods
to counteract the effect.
“Previous studies have told us that when
patients take diuretic thiazides, potassium
levels drop and the risk of diabetes climbs
to 50 percent,” says lead researcher Tariq
Shafi, M.D., M.H.S., of the Department of
Nephrology at Johns Hopkins University
School of Medicine.
“Now, for the first time, we think we have
concrete information connecting the dots.”
Thiazides, such as chlorthalidone, are an
inexpensive and highly effective way to
treat high blood pressure and have been used
widely for decades.
However, their association with diabetes has
forced many hypertension suffers to use
other medications that can be several times
as expensive, says Shafi.
“This study shows us that as long as
physicians monitor and regulate potassium
levels, thiazides could be used safely,
saving patients thousands of dollars a
year,” says Shafi.
“It could be as simple as increasing the
consumption of potassium-rich foods like
bananas and oranges and/or reducing salt
intake, both of which will keep potassium
from dropping.”
Researchers examined data from 3,790
nondiabetic participants in the Systolic
Hypertension in Elderly Program (SHEP).
SHEP is a randomized clinical trial
conducted between 1985 and 1991 designed to
determine the risk versus benefit of giving
a certain high blood pressure medication to
people age 60 years or older.
Half of the subjects were treated with
chlorthalidone and half with a fake drug. Of
the 3,790 subjects, 1,603 were men and 724
were nonwhite.
None had a history of diabetes. In the
original study, potassium levels were
monitored as a safety precaution to guard
against irregular heartbeat, a condition
that can result from low potassium.
The results, published online this month in
the journal Hypertension, showed that for
each 0.5 milliequivalent-per-liter (MEq/L)
decrease in serum potassium, there was a 45
percent increased risk of diabetes. None of
the people in the group receiving the fake
drug developed low potassium levels.
Shafi says these findings should encourage
physicians to establish a potassium baseline
by checking hypertensive patients’ medical
records to determine their potassium levels
before prescribing thiazides.
“We would normally look at the number only
after six weeks of treatment to make sure it
was not low enough to cause heart problems.
"
As a result, we might not be aware that it
dropped significantly from where it was
before treatment — putting the patient at
risk for developing diabetes,” says Shafi.
Additional Johns Hopkins researchers who
contributed to this study are Lawrence J.
Appel, M.D., M.P.H.; Edgar R. Miller III,
M.D, Ph.D.; Michael J. Klag, M.D., M.P.H.,
and Rulan S. Parekh, M.D., M.S.
...
...
...