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Medicines used for heart problems

Key points about cardiovascular medicines

If you have heart disease, high blood pressure or heart failure, you are likely to be taking medicine to manage these.
There are many types and combinations of medicines used.
This page provides a summary of the most common medicines.

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Heart problems are caused by cardiovascular disease – a term used for all types of diseases that affect your heart or blood vessels. This includes strokes, peripheral artery disease and coronary artery disease (clogged arteries) which can cause heart attacks and congenital heart disease.

As well as self-care and lifestyle changes, medicines are prescribed to manage heart problems.

These medicines work best if they're taken regularly.
If you get side effects, talk to your doctor before stopping. It can take a while to find the right dose and combination for you.
Many of the medicines you need to take to strengthen your heart start with a small dose and are built up gradually, depending on whether you have any side effects.

Many people with cardiovascular disease may also be started on cholesterol lowering medicines such as atorvastatin, simvastatin, ezetimibe or bezafibrate. Cholesterol-lowering medicines have been shown to reduce the risk of heart attack or stroke for people with high cholesterol. Read more about cholesterol lowering medicines.

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
Dabigatran Enoxaparin Heparin Rivaroxaban Warfarin	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.

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).

Video: How do novel oral anti-coagulants (NOACs) work?

(British Heart Foundation, UK, 2018)

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

Examples	Uses
Aspirin Clopidogrel Dipyridamole Ticagrelor	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.

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.

ACE inhibitors relax your blood vessels allowing your blood to flow more easily. This lowers your blood pressure and reduces the amount of work your heart needs to do to pump blood around your body.

Examples	Uses
Captopril Cilazapril Enalapril Lisinopril Perindopril Quinapril Ramipril	These are prescribed for people with high blood pressure or heart failure. Read more about ACE inhibitors.

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

Video: How do ACE inhibitors work?

(British Heart Foundation, UK, 2018)

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
Candesartan Irbesartan Losartan	These are prescribed for people with high blood pressure or heart failure. Read more about ARBs.

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

Examples	Uses
Atenolol Bisoprolol Carvedilol Celiprolol Labetalol Metoprolol Propranolol Sotalol	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:

Video: How do Beta blockers work?

(British Heart Foundation, UK, 2018)

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
Amlodipine Diltiazem Felodipine Isradipine Nifedipine Verapamil	They are prescribed for people with high blood pressure, irregular heart beat (abnormal heart rhythms) or chest pain (angina). Read more about calcium channel blockers.

Diuretics make your body remove extra water and salts through peeing (passing urine). They are commonly called ‘water pills’. Diuretics are used to treat conditions such as 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. Examples are furosemide, bemetanide, bendroflumethiaide, chlortalidone and hydrochlorothiazide. Different diuretics remove fluid at different rates and through different methods.