High blood pressure drugs could also keep osteoporosis at bay – new research
Scientists are hoping that a drug currently used to treat high blood pressure could also successfully keep the brittle bone disease, osteoporosis, at bay.
Dr Daniela Riccardi, a senior lecturer in physiology at the University of Cardiff's School of Biosciences, is testing the theory that drugs called thiazide diuretics, taken by elderly people with high blood pressure, can also increase the formation of new bone.
Dr Riccardi, and her colleague Dr Howard Carter, a lecturer in dental science at the University Dental Hospital in Manchester have been awarded a grant of almost £90,000 over two years from medical research charity the Arthritis Research Campaign, to carry out the work.
Osteoporosis is a disease that affects one in three women, and one in ten men over the age of 50, and is particularly prevalent in post-menopausal women. Existing drugs to re-build lost bone, although effective, all have side effects.
"In addition, the drugs that are most commonly used to reduce high blood pressure in elderly people, called loop diuretics, generally make the bones thinner," explained Dr Riccardi. "We have found that another class of diuretics, the thiazides, can lower blood pressure and at the same time increase the formation of new bone.
"Our purpose with this research is to understand the short and long-term effects of these drugs on preventing bone loss, and to identify what gives the drugs their protective effect."
The study will provide important information for doctors who treat older patients with high blood pressure and osteoporosis, and could mean that patients need to take fewer drugs.
For more information email info@arc.org.uk.
