Your Heart, Your Life: A Community Health Worker's Manual for the Hispanic Community

Session 4 Handout Tips for Taking Medicine for High Blood Pressure

Download Tips for Taking Medicine for High Blood Pressure (21k) handout.

1. Make sure you take medicine as your doctor tells you, not only on the days when you do not feel well.
2. Tell the doctor the names of all other medicines, home remedies, herbs, or supplements you take. Bring everything with you when you have a doctor's appointment.
3. Tell the doctor right away if the medicine makes you feel strange or sick. Ask the doctor about changing the dosage or switching to another type of medicine.
4. Refill your prescription before you run out of medicine.
5. Have your blood pressure checked often to see if the medicine is working for you.
6. Don't stop taking your medicine if your blood pressure is okay. That means the medicine is working.

Questions to ask the doctor

When the doctor gives you medicine for high blood pressure, ask:

• Name of medicine(s):
• Amount of medicine to take:
• When to take it:
• What to eat or drink with it:
• If your other medicines can be taken safely at the same time:
• If problems occur, call this number immediately:

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Information on this page is taken from the English print version of “Your Heart, Your Life, A Community Health Worker's Manual.” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, NIH Publication No. 08-3674, Originally Printed 1999, Revised May 2008.

Last Updated March 2012