Medicines

125,000 = the number of people estimated to die each year from failing to take medications as directed.

$100 billion = the cost to the nation resulting from failing to take medications as directed.

Get the Most Out of Your Medicines

On your journey to a healthy heart, you may be prescribed medicines and therapies to help you recover and maintain heart health. Here we discuss the importance of taking medications as directed, methods to get the most out of your “meds,” and options for paying for therapies that have proven successful in helping patients live well after a heart disease diagnosis.

Medication Adherence and Safety

One of your health care team’s roles is to prescribe medicines and therapies known to help us recover from heart disease and maintain cardiovascular health. Our role is to take them as directed. But we don’t always play our part the way we should. This is a nationwide problem with high personal and societal costs.

Medication adherence—a fancy phrase for taking your pills as directed—can be just as important to your recovery after a heart event as complying with diet and exercise guidance. Medications are often expensive but the costs of hospitalization are far higher to our pocketbooks and our overall health.

When we don’t take our medicines as instructed, we could wind up back in the hospital. These readmissions are financially costly and put us at risk for more cardiovascular events in the future.

With expanded insurance options and other assistance, medications for heart disease are more accessible to patients than ever.

Common Heart Medications

Your heart issues are unique to you, and only your health care team knows which specific medications you need. However, most heart medications fall under certain broad categories. The table below describes the most common heart medications and their uses.

Common Medications

Anticoagulants	By reducing your blood’s ability to clot, these prevent blood clots or prevent existing clots from getting larger.
ACE-Inhibitors and Angiotensin Receptor Blockers (ARBs)	These affect a hormone called angiotensin-II in your body and can lower your blood pressure and reduce the stress on your heart.
Antiplatelet Agents	These prevent clotting caused by sticky platelets in your blood and reduce the chance of heart attack and stroke caused by clots. They also help keep stents open.
Beta-Blockers	Used to lower blood pressure, fix abnormal heart beats (arrhythmias), and treat angina, these lessen the work your heart has to do by, among other things, decreasing your heart rate and relaxing your blood vessels.
Calcium Channel Blockers	Often prescribed to treat high blood pressure, angina, and coronary artery spasms, these reduce the flow of calcium into your heart muscle and blood vessels, lowering blood pressure and putting less strain on your heart. Some also decrease heart rate.
Digitalis	Typically prescribed to treat certain types of irregular heart rhythms or the symptoms of heart failure, this increases the heart’s pumping function and slows heart rate.
Diuretics (“Water Pills”)	Used to treat high blood pressure or heart failure, these help your body remove excess fluid and salt buildup through increased urination.
Nitrates and Antianginal Agents	These agents—of which nitrates are the most common—are used to prevent, diminish, or relieve angina discomfort by increasing the flow of blood and oxygen to your heart and relaxing your blood vessels.
Statins	Statins help lower your cholesterol level.