Online medication options help heart patients

Having fast, easy access to essential medicines can help cut costs and make getting pills on a regular basis much simpler, reducing stress and saving heart patients money in the process. An online pharmacy can grant patients with a prescription from a doctor the tools to manage their medication volumes, get information on their conditions and receive current updates about shipping, billing and other personal data without having to keep going to a local drugstore, fighting crowds or worrying about the weather.

A study by Kaiser Permanente in Northern California showed that access to these kinds of online pharmacies helped patients stay on top of their pill regimens, pursue medication more reliably and receive better overall improvement of their conditions. The group looked at hypertension patients specifically, a subset of patients that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports is not being controlled and monitored adequately in the majority of cases.

The Kaiser researchers looked at over 40,000 hypertension patients to identify why some of them were doing better than others. The scientists found that use of Canadian online pharmacies and other such internet medication resources made medicines easier to obtain and cheaper in the long run.

"The differences that we found occur early on after a patient has been diagnosed with hypertension," said research author Alyce Adams. "In fact, as early as the first refill, some patients are forgoing their hypertension medication."

Subsequent cost control
A major problem those with hypertension and heart diagnoses face is the number and cost of pills they're usually prescribed. Even in cases when some supporting medications may not be that expensive, as a whole, obtaining these other pills becomes more difficult due to the expense incurred in procuring various treatments. The American Journal of Hypertension recently wrote that some supporting medications, such as diuretics, can help reduce the side effects of hypertension, but not all physicians prescribe these pills readily. While some worry about the side effects such medications may carry, cost is a recurring issue in obtaining the right care.

As the Kaiser Permanente group showed, finding ways to save money on necessary treatment can make people more receptive to pursuing additional medication. Online pharmacies can be instrumental in bridging this gap, assisting hypertension and blood pressure patients in getting the coverage and effectiveness in care they need in order to live longer and feel better.