Why would a doctor prescribe a diuretic?

Why would a doctor prescribe a diuretic?

Diuretics are used to rid the body of extra fluid or salt. People with high blood pressure, heart failure, swollen tissues, and kidney disease often use diuretics to treat these conditions. Extra fluid in the body makes it hard for the heart to work properly and can make breathing difficult.

Do diuretics help with high blood pressure?

What diuretics help treat. The most common condition treated with diuretics is high blood pressure. The drugs reduce the amount of fluid in your blood vessels, and this helps lower your blood pressure.

What is the most commonly prescribed diuretic for the management of hypertension?

Thiazide diuretics are the most commonly prescribed diuretics for hypertension, but other classes of diuretics may be useful in alternative circumstances.

What conditions are diuretics used for?

Diuretics are used to lower urinary calcium excretion, making them useful in preventing calcium-containing kidney stones. Diuretics are used as the sole therapeutic agents to treat hypertension. Diuretics can also be used in combination with other antihypertensive drugs to treat more severe forms of hypertension.

Should I drink more water while taking diuretics?

The water that comes out of your body has to go somewhere, so you can expect to be peeing more and more often for several hours after a dose. You also run the risk of getting dehydrated, and simply drinking more fluids may not be enough.

What happens when you stop taking diuretics?

When diuretics are withdrawn the patient develops rebound retention of sodium and water and oedema, which convinces the doctor that the diuretics are necessary, and the patient is then committed to a lifetime exposure to diuretics. Some patients with heart failure do need to continue with diuretic treatment.

What happens when diuretics stop working?

Diuretic resistance is a significant problem in patients with advanced HF. The inability to relieve congestive symptoms leads to increased hospitalizations, ED visits, increased costs of care and worsening quality of life.

Do diuretics lose effectiveness?

It can simply be defined as either a loss of response or reduction in the response to loop diuretics. It can develop in one out of every three HF patients. Generally, failure to reduce the volume of extracellular fluid despite using diuretics appropriately can be termed as ‘diuretic resistance’.

Can your body become dependent on diuretics?

Idiopathic edema patients abusing diuretics are occasionally becoming dependent to such a degree on increasing doses of diuretics that their withdrawal results in severe cardiorespiratory failure, occasionally even pulmonary edema.

Is long term use of diuretics harmful?

Diuretics are generally safe. Side effects include increased urination and sodium loss. Diuretics can also affect blood potassium levels. If you take a thiazide diuretic, your potassium level can drop too low (hypokalemia), which can cause life-threatening problems with your heartbeat.

Can you take diuretics long term?

Long-term diuretic treatment was well tolerated, and caused remarkably few significant untoward reactions. The unfavorable metabolic response to diuretic treatment may, however, cancel part of the potential benefit of blood pressure control in certain patients.

What is the best diuretic?

The 8 Best Natural Diuretics to Eat or Drink

1. Coffee. Share on Pinterest.
2. Dandelion Extract. Dandelion extract, also known as Taraxacum officinale or “lion’s tooth,” is a popular herbal supplement often taken for its diuretic effects ( 4 , 5 ).
3. Horsetail.
4. Parsley.
5. Hibiscus.
6. Caraway.
7. Green and Black Tea.
8. Nigella Sativa.

Is orange juice a diuretic?

Soda, fruit juice, and herbal tea with sugar are all examples of drinks that can act as diuretics.

Is cranberry juice a diuretic?

Cranberry is acidic and can interfere with unwanted bacteria in the urinary tract. Cranberry is also believed to act as a diuretic (“water pill”). Cranberry (as juice or in capsules) has been used in alternative medicine as a possibly effective aid in preventing symptoms such as pain or burning with urination.