Cardiovascular medications

If you have heart disease, high blood pressure or heart failure, you are likely to be taking medicine to control these. There are many types and combinations of medicines used.

This page provides a summary of the most common medicines: 

Anticoagulant

Anticoagulants are often referred to as ‘blood thinners’ but they actually work by interrupting the clot-forming process and increasing the time it takes for clots to form. This helps prevent blood clots from forming and stops existing clots from getting bigger.

Examples Uses 
  • These are prescribed for people who are at risk of blood clots or stroke, where blood clots form in your heart and travel to your brain (usually due to an irregular heart rhythm known as atrial fibrillation).  
  • Read more about anticoagulants.

The following animation describes how anticoagulants such as dabigatran, rivaroxaban and apixaban work in your body:

(British Heart Foundation, UK)

Antiplatelet medications

These medicines stop blood clots from forming by preventing blood platelets from sticking together.

Examples Uses 
  • These are prescribed for people who have had a heart attack, chest pain (angina), strokes, TIA (transient ischemic attacks, or ‘little strokes’) and other forms of cardiovascular (heart) disease.
  • They are also used if you have plaque build up in your blood vessels but don't as yet have a large obstruction in the artery.

Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors

ACE inhibitors expand blood vessels and allow blood to flow more easily. This reduces your heart's workload and makes your heart work more efficiently.

Examples Uses

The following animation describes how ACE inhibitors work in your body:

(British Heart Foundation, UK)

Angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs)

ARBs expand your blood vessels and allow blood to flow more easily. This reduces your heart's workload and makes your heart work more efficiently. ARBs are also called ‘sartans’.

Examples Uses

Beta blockers

Beta blockers decrease your heart rate. This lowers your blood pressure and makes your heart beat more slowly and with less force.

Examples Uses
  • These are prescribed for people with high blood pressure, irregular heart beat (abnormal heart rhythms) or chest pain (angina).
  • They are also used to prevent future heart attacks if you have had a heart attack.
  • Read more about beta-blockers.

The following animation describes how beta blockers work in your body:

(British Heart Foundation, UK)

Calcium channel blockers

Calcium channel blockers decrease your heart rate. This lowers your blood pressure and makes your heart beat more slowly and with less force.

Examples Uses

Diuretics (water pills)

Diuretics cause your body to lose extra water and salts through peeing (passing urine). They are commonly called ‘water pills’. Diuretics are used to treat conditions like high blood pressure (hypertension) and swelling (oedema) in your feet, ankles and stomach caused by heart failure, kidney failure or liver failure. 

By decreasing the build up of fluid in your lungs and other parts of your body, diuretics improve breathing, reduce swelling and help to relieve the load on your heart. There are a few different types of diuretics. Different diuretics remove fluid at different rates and through different methods. Read more about diuretics.

Digoxin

Digoxin is used to treat abnormal heart rhythms (arrhythmias), including atrial fibrillation, to slow your heart rate. This helps to reduce the strain on your heart. Digoxin also increases the force of your heart's contractions, which can be helpful in heart failure. Read more about digoxin.

Credits: Sandra Ponen, Pharmacist. Reviewed By: Angela Lambie, Pharmacist, Auckland Last reviewed: 09 Sep 2019