If you have high blood pressure (also called hypertension), drugs called diuretics can lower it and help keep it down. There is also a strong chance that taking a diuretic will reduce your risk of having a heart attack or stroke or getting heart failure. Diuretics are as good at lowering blood pressure as other drugs called beta-blockers, ACE inhibitors and calcium channel blockers.

You may need to take more than one medicine to bring your blood pressure down. Less than half the people with high blood pressure need just one medicine to control their blood pressure. One third of people need three or more different medicines. Diuretics are often used with ACE inhibitors and beta-blockers because they can make these medications work better.

Diuretics are drugs used to lower high blood pressure. You may have heard diuretics called water pills. This describes how they work. They flush out excess salt and water from your body as urine. This takes some of the water out of your blood. And as the amount of blood in your blood vessels falls, so does your blood pressure. Diuretics also open up the arteries (the blood vessels that carry blood from the heart around the body), making it easier for blood to flow through under less pressure.

Like many medications, diuretics can have side effects. While you may be less willing to put up with side effects, the research shows that diuretics can make your life better. Few people who take diuretics for high blood pressure stop taking them because they get side effects. And many feel better, especially if they're on a low dose.