Diltiazem
About Diltiazem
Diltiazem is a prescription medication used primarily to treat high blood pressure and to prevent chronic chest pain, also known as angina. By managing these conditions, this medication helps protect your cardiovascular system from long-term damage, such as heart attacks or strokes. It belongs to a class of medications that work directly on the blood vessels and the heart muscle to keep them functioning smoothly.
To achieve the best results, you must take Diltiazem consistently every single day, exactly as your doctor has prescribed. Depending on the specific formulation you are given, you can typically take this medication with or without food, though taking it at the same time each day helps maintain steady levels in your body. Making simple diet and lifestyle adjustments, such as reducing your daily salt intake and staying physically active, will also help maximise the benefits of this treatment.
While taking Diltiazem, some people may experience mild side effects, such as a mild headache, dizziness, or light swelling in the ankles. These symptoms are common and often resolve on their own, but you must consult your doctor immediately if you experience severe symptoms, such as an exceptionally slow heart rate, extreme dizziness, or signs of liver damage like yellowing of your skin or eyes.
Do not take this if you have certain pre-existing heart conditions, including a very slow heart rate, severe heart failure, or heart block, unless you have a functioning pacemaker. Before starting this medication, talk to your doctor if you have kidney problems, liver disease, or any history of heart rhythm disorders, so they can ensure it is safe for you.
This medication can interact with other substances; for example, combining it with alcohol can cause your blood pressure to drop too low, and smoking can decrease how well the medicine works for chest pain. If you are pregnant, planning to become pregnant, breastfeeding, or are an elderly individual, consult your doctor or pharmacist before using this medication, as your dosage may need close monitoring.
Uses of Diltiazem
Medicinal Benefits
Diltiazem provides effective cardiovascular support by helping control blood pressure, reduce heart strain, and improve blood flow. By supporting healthy heart function, this medicine offers several key health benefits:
- Better Blood Pressure Control and Heart Protection: Diltiazem helps maintain blood pressure within a healthier range, reducing the risk of serious complications such as stroke, heart attack, and kidney damage.
- Reduced Frequency of Chest Pain Episodes: For people with angina, Diltiazem helps prevent and reduce episodes of chest discomfort, making daily activities, light exercise, and routine tasks easier to perform.
- Improved Heart Efficiency and Circulation: By helping slow an increased heart rate and relaxing blood vessels, Diltiazem reduces the workload on the heart and supports more efficient delivery of oxygen-rich blood throughout the body.
Directions for Use
Follow these steps to apply Diltiazem safely and effectively:
- Swallow the tablet or capsule whole with a full glass of water. Do not crush, chew, or break the medication, especially if you are taking an extended-release version.
- Try to take your dose at the same time every day to keep a steady amount of the medicine in your body.
- You can take this medicine with or without food, but be consistent with whichever method you choose.
- Always follow your doctor's exact instructions regarding how to take this medication. Never change your dose or stop taking it suddenly without consulting your healthcare provider first.
Storage
Side Effects of Diltiazem
Common Side Effects (Usually mild):
- Dizziness or lightheadedness
- Headache
- Swelling in your ankles or feet
- Nausea or mild upset stomach
- Feeling unusually tired or weak
Serious Side Effects (Call a doctor right away):
- An unusually slow or irregular heartbeat
- Fainting or severe lightheadedness upon standing up
- Sudden, unexplained weight gain or trouble breathing
- Signs of liver damage, such as yellowing of your skin or eyes, dark urine, or severe upper stomach pain
- A severe skin rash, itching, hives, or peeling skin
Medicines Containing this Salt
View AllDrug Warnings
- Check Your Pulse Regularly: If your resting heart rate drops below 50 beats per minute, or if you feel exceptionally weak, skip your next dose and call your doctor immediately.
- Rise Up Slowly: To prevent sudden dizziness or fainting, take your time when standing up from a sitting or lying position.
- Inspect Your Medicine: Always look at your tablets or capsules before taking them; do not take any pills that are broken, cracked, or discolored.
- Inform Your Healthcare Team: Always tell your dentists, surgeons, and other doctors that you take Diltiazem before undergoing any medical procedures or tests.
- Never Stop Suddenly: Stopping this medicine abruptly can cause your blood pressure to surge or your chest pain to return worse than before. Always talk to your doctor to safely and gradually decrease your dose if needed.
Drug Interactions
Drug-Drug Interactions:
Inform your doctor if you are taking any of the following medicines, as they may interact.
- Beta-blockers: Taking these alongside Diltiazem can cause your heart rate to drop to dangerously slow levels or lead to heart block.
- Digoxin: This medicine can increase the levels of digoxin in your blood, which raises the risk of digoxin toxicity.
- Certain Cholesterol Medicines (Statins): Diltiazem can increase the concentration of certain statins in your body, which increases the risk of severe muscle pain and damage.
- Other Blood Pressure Medicines: Combining this medicine with other drugs that lower blood pressure can cause your pressure to fall too low, leading to severe dizziness.
Drug-Food Interactions:
- Grapefruit and Grapefruit Juice: Interferes with how your liver processes Diltiazem, leading to dangerously high levels of the medication in your bloodstream.
- Alcohol: Can increase the blood pressure-lowering effect of the medicine, making you feel lightheaded, drowsy, or prone to fainting.
Drug-Disease Interactions:
Inform your doctor if you have a history of the following conditions before taking Diltiazem, as it may worsen your condition or cause complications.
- Heart Block or Sick Sinus Syndrome: This medicine can worsen electrical conduction issues in the heart, and should not be used by patients with these conditions unless they have a working pacemaker.
- Severe Heart Failure: Because this medication relaxes the heart muscle, it may worsen fluid retention and breathing difficulties in people with severe heart failure.
- Liver or Kidney Disease: Impaired liver or kidney function can slow down how your body clears this medicine, meaning you may require a lower dose to avoid side effects.
Drug-Drug Interactions Checker List:
Safety Advice
Alcohol
unsafeYou are recommended to avoid alcohol consumption while taking Diltiazem to avoid unpleasant side-effects.
Pregnancy
unsafeDiltiazem is pregnancy risk category C medicine, and its efficacy and safety have not been established. Hence, it is not recommended to take Diltiazem while you are pregnant or planning for pregnancy. Please consult your doctor if you have any concerns regarding this.
Breast Feeding
unsafeIt is not recommended to take Diltiazem while you are breastfeeding as Diltiazem may pass into breast milk. Please consult your doctor if you have any concerns regarding this.
Driving
unsafeDiltiazem may cause dizziness and tiredness, do not drive or operate heavy machinery if you experience these symptoms.
Liver
cautionDose adjustment may be needed. Diltiazem should be used with caution in patients with liver disease.
Kidney
cautionDose adjustment may be needed. Diltiazem should be used with caution in patients with kidney disease.
Children
unsafeDiltiazem is not recommended for children below 18 years of age, as the efficacy and safety have not been established.
Habit Forming
Diet & Lifestyle Advise
- Reduce Salt Intake: Eat a low-sodium diet to help your medication work more effectively at keeping your blood pressure in a safe range.
- Avoid Grapefruit: Do not eat grapefruit or drink grapefruit juice while taking this medicine, as it can cause dangerous amounts of the drug to build up in your body.
- Stay Safely Active: Incorporate moderate, low-impact exercise, like walking or swimming, into your weekly routine, but always consult your doctor before starting any new fitness program.
- Avoid Smoking and Limit Alcohol: Smoking damages your blood vessels and can worsen chest pain, while alcohol can interact with Diltiazem to cause sudden, severe drops in blood pressure.
- Keep a Blood Pressure Log: Check your blood pressure and heart rate regularly at home and write down the numbers to share with your doctor at your next visit.
Special Advise
- Regularly monitor blood pressure levels to prevent hypotension (low blood pressure).
- Get up slowly while rising from a lying or sitting position, as Diltiazem may cause light-headedness.
- To treat your condition effectively, continue taking Diltiazem for as long as your doctor has prescribed it.
- Your doctor may advise you to get regular tests while taking Diltiazem if you have kidney and liver impairment.
Patients Concern
Disease/Condition Glossary
High blood pressure (hypertension): It is a condition in which the blood exerts increased pressure on the walls of blood vessels, leading to hypertension. This condition can lead to hardened arteries (blood vessels), decreasing the blood and oxygen flow to the heart. Raised blood pressure can cause chest pain (angina) and heart attack. Additionally, high blood pressure also causes brain damage (stroke) and kidney failure. Symptoms of high blood pressure include headache, dizziness, nose bleed, changes in vision, chest pain, weakness and dyspnoea (shortness of breath). However, most of the time, the signs and symptoms of hypertension are none.
Angina (chest pain): It occurs due to reduced blood flow to the heart, which is caused by narrowing or blockage of the heart's arteries (coronary artery). The blockade usually occurs due to the build-up of fat/cholesterol in the coronary artery. Symptoms include pain or tightness in the chest, neck, arms or back, weakness, lightheadedness, anxiety and abnormal heartbeat.
FAQs
Diltiazem is used to treat mild to moderate hypertension (high blood pressure). It is also indicated in the management of chronic stable angina and angina due to coronary artery spasms.
Diltiazem works by relaxing the blood vessels in the heart, thereby reducing the raised blood pressure. Diltiazem‚ eases anginal chest pain by preventing the narrowing of blood vessels‚ and dilating the coronary arteries.
Diltiazem may cause swelling in the fingers, feet, and ankles. To prevent this, avoid sitting or standing for a long time, raise your legs while sitting down, reduce your intake of salt (sodium chloride) and exercise regularly to maintain good circulation.
Diltiazem may increase the chance of skin sensitivity (photosensitivity). Avoid prolonged exposure to sunlight. Wear protective clothing and sunscreen whilst going out.
Diltiazem may cause light-headedness due to a sudden lowering in blood pressure leading to dizziness on standing. If you experience this, do not try to stand up suddenly or start walking; instead, lie down and get up slowly only when you feel better.
You should take your medications regularly at the same time. In addition to that, changing lifestyle may also help to control blood pressure. These changes include eating a healthy diet, low in fat and salt, exercising at least half an hour every day, maintaining a healthy weight, reducing alcohol consumption, and quitting smoking habits.
Uncontrolled high blood pressure may lead to serious complications in several body parts. It causes kidney damage, heart failure, bleeding in the brain and eyes.
No, Diltiazem is not a blood thinner. It belongs to the class of medicines called calcium channel blocker. It is used to treat hypertension (high blood pressure), arrhythmias (irregular heartbeat) and angina (chest pain caused by a reduction of oxygen to the heart muscle).
Yes, Diltiazem may cause weight gain but not everyone taking Diltiazem will experience this. However, consult your doctor or a nutritionist, if you are gaining weight while taking Diltiazem.
It is recommended to take Diltiazem before meals and at night. Your doctor will decide the dose and should be taken exactly as prescribed by the doctor.
Diltiazem may cause sleeplessness but does not affect everyone taking it. If this condition persists or worsens, discuss with your doctor.
You should avoid taking Diltiazem if you are allergic to it, have heart failure, an irregular or slow heartbeat, and low blood pressure. Also, it is not recommended for children and women who are pregnant or planning to conceive.
Symptoms of Diltiazem overdose include slow/fast/irregular heartbeat, difficulty breathing, fainting, and seizures (fits). It may also cause nausea, vomiting, confusion, dizziness and increased sweating. In case of overdose, contact your doctor immediately or seek emergency medical services in a nearby hospital.
You should take Diltiazem for as long as it is advised by your doctor. Do not stop it on your own or reduce your dose. Discontinuing Diltiazem suddenly may increase your blood pressure or worsen angina.
You should avoid alcohol consumption while taking Diltiazem. Also, avoid driving and operating heavy machinery if you feel dizzy and unwell after taking Diltiazem. Additionally, avoid pregnancy and breastfeeding while taking Diltiazem.
The serious side effects of Diltiazem include yellowing of the skin or eyes, severe allergic reaction, nausea and extreme tiredness. It may also cause unusual bleeding or bruising, loss of appetite and stomach pain. One may also experience an increase in the frequency or severity of chest pain (angina) and flu-like symptoms. If you experience any of these symptoms, contact your doctor immediately.
While caffeine does not directly stop the medicine from working, it can raise your blood pressure and heart rate, which counteracts the benefits of your medication. It is best to limit your caffeine intake while on this treatment. Talk to your doctor.
You should swallow the tablets or capsules whole. Crushing, chewing, or breaking them—especially extended-release versions—can cause the medication to release into your body all at once, which increases the risk of dangerous side effects. Talk to your doctor.
The medicine begins working within a few hours to help lower your blood pressure, but it may take several weeks of consistent daily use to reach its full effect in preventing chest pain. Keep taking it daily even if you do not feel an immediate difference. Talk to your doctor.
In some cases, this class of medication can cause mild swelling or overgrowth of your gums, known as gingival hyperplasia. Brushing, flossing regularly, and keeping up with your dental cleanings can help prevent this. Talk to your doctor.
Some patients do experience mild fatigue, weakness, or dizziness, especially when first starting this medication or after a dose change. Avoid driving or operating machinery until you know how this medicine affects you. Talk to your doctor.
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