💊Daily Pill: What is a Beta Blocker?
Beat the polygraph
The Daily Pill is a series of very short daily posts where I share the definition of a medical term I think we should all know. Read it every morning and build up your medical vocabulary.
🫸🏽Beta Blocker
These are a class of medications that reduce the heart's workload and help it beat more regularly. They do this by blocking the effects of adrenaline (epinephrine) on the beta receptors in the heart. This slows the heart rate, reduces blood pressure, and improves blood flow. Beta blockers are most commonly used to treat high blood pressure, but they also play a role in the treatment of conditions like heart arrhythmias, angina (chest pain), and heart failure.
Beta blockers can also be used to prevent migraines and reduce symptoms of anxiety.
🤔Why you need to know:
Because if you have hypertension and are being treated with beta blockers, like I was, you need to know they are not the very best alternative for your condition. In fact, beta blockers can reduce your capacity for exercise because they cap your heart rate and block adrenaline - which make it harder for you to kick ass. If this is the case for you, talk to your PCP and see what other options you have. That’s what I did and look at me now.
🧠Trivia:
Beta blockers can reduce physical symptoms of anxiety, such as increased heart rate and sweating, which are measured by polygraphs. By blunting these physiological responses, it becomes harder to detect these changes, so they have been used in the past in an attempt to beat polygraphs.
Also, polygraphs are mostly juju and are not backed by science at all.
