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Common Types of Heart Medications and Indianapolis ACLS Classes

Treat heart conditions, manage cardiovascular/heart disease symptoms and reduce the risk of future heart events with heart medications. You can stay safe while taking the medications by:

1.      Asking your healthcare provider all your questions about your medications. Clearly understand why you are taking these pills and how long you need to take them for.

2.      Remembering to take each dose when required, but it’s as important to keep in mind that if you forget one, you shouldn’t try to make up by taking extra tablets next time.

3.      Planning ahead- get your prescription filled in plenty of time to not run out of pills.

4.      Not skipping doses of your pills even when you feel all fine. Do not stop taking medication without advice from your doctor or nurse – sudden cessation can be dangerous.

5.      Always keeping a list of your pills handy.

Before talking about the common types of heart medications, here’s some information on the life-saving CPR procedure.


Cardiac arrest is a life-threatening emergency that occurs when the ticker stops pumping oxygenated blood around the body. Ventricular Fibrillation is the most common cause of a cardiac arrest during which the electrical activity of the heart becomes erratic, causing the ticker to quiver or ‘fibrillate’ instead of beating normally. Cardiac arrest is often fatal if not treated quickly. The most appropriate treatment is a combination of cardiopulmonary resuscitation and defibrillation. CPR combines chest compressions and rescue breaths that keeps oxygenated blood circulating until restoration of an effective heartbeat and breathing whereas defibrillation is the use of an electric shock through the chest wall to correct the VF using a machine called defibrillator.

Choose a certified training site for acquiring training such as CPR Indianapolis which is an American Heart Association training site. Courses for both healthcare and non-healthcare providers are offered.
Learn more about an “ACLS class Indianapolis”:

Advanced Cardiac Life Support classes- This course is required for most healthcare professionals that work in acute care areas of a hospital or other healthcare industries that provide sedation and outpatient procedure. This course is a great way to expand your knowledge of treating cardiovascular emergencies apart from being a great addition to your resume.

Common types of heart medications include
Anti-arrhythmic- They help control or slow irregular heart rhythms like atrial fibrillation, supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) or ventricular tachycardia (VT). Anti-arrhythmic types currently used outside of hospital include beta blockers, calcium channel blockers, amiodarone e.g. Aratac, Cordarone X, flecainide e.g. Tambocor, etc. The medications suppress any irregularity in the heart rhythm by affecting heart cells’ electrical activity.

Anticoagulants- Types of anticoagulants include warfarin and dabigatran e.g. Pradaxa. They are also known as “blood thinners” which lowers risk of stroke by slowing clotting and preventing blood clots from forming and growing.

Calcium Channel Blockers- Lower your blood pressure with calcium channel blockers with some of them having the added benefit of slowing the heart rate further reducing blood pressure and relieving chest pain and controlling an irregular heart rhythm.

Statins- High cholesterol is a major heart disease risk factor. Heart disease increases the risk for cardiac emergencies in an individual. Statins lower LDL (bad cholesterol) and triglycerides and raise HDL (good cholesterol) which lower your overall risk of heart attack and stroke. Types of statin include simvastatin e.g. Arrow-Simva, Lipex, SimStatin; atorvastatin e.g. Lorstat, Zarator.

Beta Blockers- Apart from helping to control angina, beta blockers steady the heart rhythm and rate and lowers blood pressure thus reducing the risk of having a heart attack. Also, beta blockers help stopping heart failure from getting worse. Types include bisoprolol e.g. Bosvate; carvedilol e.g. Auro-Carvedilol, Dilatrend, Dicarz; metoprolol, atenolol, sotalol, celiprolol and labetalol.

ACE Inhibitors- They lower blood pressure thus making it easier for the ticker to pump blood which can help relieve symptoms like breathlessness and swelling which are caused by poor pumping of heart.
The other medications are Long-acting nitrates, Thiazide diuretics, Glyceryl trinitrate and Antiplatelet agents.
Join a CPR class at CPR Indianapolis and become AHA CPR certified. 
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