Researchers from the University of Waterloo (Canada) have issued an important warning, and that is that people with high blood pressure who are prescribed diuretics and a renin-angiotensin system (RSA) inhibitor should not combine them with ibuprofen, since the mixture of all these drugs could lead to permanent kidney damage.
Until now there was no fixed recommendation in this regard, that added to the fact that it is easy to obtain ibuprofen without a prescription in pharmacies could be causing many alterations in the kidneys in the population with certain medical profiles. The study used a large system of nonlinear algebraic differential equations that have been arranged to describe how the renal, cardiovascular, and sympathetic nervous systems regulate blood pressure and respond to perturbations caused by medications.
The research, published in the journal Mathematical Biosciences and carried out using mathematical and computer-based tests, has revealed that these effects do not occur in all people who mix the three drugs, but only occur in certain medical profiles, and in some of them become permanent.
Substitute drug to prevent triple whammy
As explained in the work, the model simulations have indicated that low water intake, the myogenic response – contraction of blood vessels in a muscle – and drug sensitivity can predispose patients with high blood pressure to develop kidney injury. acute induced by taking the three drugs.
“If you are taking these medications for high blood pressure and need a pain reliever, consider acetaminophen instead”
This way of analyzing the effects of taking these three drugs together, which is known as a triple whammy, is a way to obtain results quickly with just a computer, rather than carrying out human trials. In this way, it is possible to advance in the knowledge about the risk factors for triple acute kidney injury.
“Diuretics are a family of drugs that cause the body to retain less water. Being dehydrated is a major factor in acute kidney injury, and then the RAS inhibitor and ibuprofen hit the kidney with this triple whammy. If you are taking these medications for hypertension and need a pain reliever, consider acetaminophen instead,” said Anita Layton, lead author of the study.
Although much remains to be learned in this field of the combination of the three drugs, the researchers emphasize that this discovery could give doctors a head start in the face of drug complications that occur in patients with high blood pressure.
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