Patients with diabetes should be very careful with the medications they take, especially if it's for lowering blood pressure. A new study suggests that aggressive blood pressure drugs can increase the risk of cardiovascular death.

Diabetes and High Blood Pressure

Over 29 million Americans are suffering from diabetes. Diabetes is an incurable disease. Thus, most patients use medication to keep their blood glucose at a regular level.

A person with diabetes is at a higher risk of suffering from high blood pressure and cardiovascular problems because diabetes affects the arteries and may lead to its hardening or narrowing, also called atherosclerosis.

Atherosclerosis may cause high blood pressure, which if left untreated, may lead to serious health problems. It can damage the blood vessels and result in stroke, heart failure, heart attack and kidney failure.

Sweden Study

A recent study from Sweden examined data from 40 published and unpublished studies that involved almost 74,000 participants. The researchers aimed to understand the effects of intensive blood pressure-lowering medication in patients with diabetes.

The results were quite surprising because they learned that the efficiency of the antihypertensive drug relies on the diabetic's systolic blood pressure.

Patients with systolic blood pressure higher than 140 mm Hg before the treatment had a lower risk of death. However, the opposite was observed in patients with a systolic blood pressure lower than 140 mm Hg. They learned that the antihypertensive drug increased their risk of stroke, heart attack and heart failure by 15 percent.

"Our study shows that intensive blood pressure lowering treatment using antihypertensive drugs may be harmful for people with diabetes and a systolic blood pressure less than 140 mm Hg" lead author Mattias Brunstron concluded.

Brunstrom advised that lack of action to treat high blood pressure is a bigger threat than overtreatment. However, he stressed that high blood pressure treatment for diabetics should be less aggressive.

"Many treatment guidelines, both Swedish and international, will be redrawn in the next few years. It has been discussed to recommend even lower blood pressure levels for people with diabetes - maybe as low as 130. We are hoping that our study, which shows potential risks of such aggressive blood pressure lowering treatment, will come to influence these guidelines," Brunstron explained.

Only Applies to Type 2 Diabetes

The researchers noted that the results are only based on patients with type 2 diabetes and previous antihypertensive treatment. Thus, it cannot be applied to patients with type 1 diabetes.

The results of the study are published in British Medical Journal