In this video, clinical exercise physiologist Nick Pratap goes over the medication amlodipine. He goes over it’s mechanism of action, who this medication is commonly prescribed to, it’s side effects and it’s effects on exercise.
How we doing youtube nick patapia from next gen rehab and in today’s video i’m going to be going over the medication amlodipine and how it affects exercise now like with any medication videos i do this is not meant to be medical advice if you do have any specific medication related questions i would encourage you to bring that up with your family doctor now let’s
Start off by talking about what amlodipine does alright so amlodipine is found under the classification of medications known as calcium channel blockers and its main purpose is to help with blood pressure regulation mainly in helping to lower blood pressure values all right and so it’s mechanism of action it works within the bodies specifically on the arteries
All right so your arteries are actually a muscle they’re also they’re known as smooth muscles and basically what this does is there’s a whole mechanism of action that that occurs but uh it allows the arteries to uh relax all right because calcium plays a major role in contraction of all the muscles in your body particularly in this case the smooth muscle and so
This medication um affects that pathway and it allows the body’s arteries throughout the body and within the heart to relax so when you get relaxation of these arteries you’re going to get a reduction in blood pressure now who typically is this medication prescribed to so specifically for patients that are you know potentially borderline hypertension or if they
Have a high blood pressure it may be given to heart patients after certain procedures in an attempt to regulate blood pressure it might be given to patients after having a bypass surgery so when they take a graph specifically things like the radial artery and they do use that as the uh the bypass of the blockage within the heart sometimes these arteries have
A tendency to spasm and so they may be given as a medication to help relax the arteries within the heart so that blood pressure is regulated and it reduces the risk of the spasming occurring sometimes it can be given to patients that experience angina especially with exertion i mean the typical protocol is to give these patients what we call nitro spray which
Open the arteries up but if it’s something that’s you know happening pretty frequently if the person has what we call microvascular disease or smaller blockages within some of the arteries smaller arteries within the heart and this medication can help alleviate some of those symptoms of chest pain or pressure um and again that would be a conversation to have with
Your doctor um to see if this would be the right medication for you now what are some of the typical side effects of this medication so the big ones like with any of the blood pressure medications could be things like dizziness um fatigue right um one common one that uh or rather not common one but one that we do see sometimes is uh swelling or edema in the legs
Right so if you notice that you’re retaining fluid within your legs within the first you know four six uh eight weeks of taking this medication and it’s not getting any better or even you know sooner than that in the first couple weeks if you notice edema going on within your legs then definitely bring that up with your family doctor because this may not be the
Appropriate medication for you and you maybe need to be switched on to something else how about this medication when it comes to exercise right when it comes to exercise patients taking amlodipine there are no contraindications the main things we’re looking out for again are things like dizziness lightheadedness we get the patient to monitor their blood pressure
If you’re noticing any of these symptoms coming on more often right dizziness lightheadedness or it’s not getting better or constantly your blood pressure’s super low you’re feeling really tired or lethargic it’s not improving then we may need to be having you speak with your doctor to have the medication dose adjusted or again if it’s not the right medication
For you then you may be taken off it completely but typically speaking there are no contraindications you’re able to do regular aerobic exercises regular strength training exercises as long as there are no other comorbidities or concerns from other health ailments or medications that may prevent you from doing certain exercises okay so hopefully you found this
Video helpful if you have any questions feel free to leave them in the comment section below also let me know if there’s any videos that you would like to make me see me make in the future and once again my name is nick patel from next gen rehabilitation we’ll see in the next video
Transcribed from video
Amlodipine and it's Effects on Blood Pressure and Exercise By Next-Gen Rehab Nick Pratap
