How soon will I start to feel better after taking heart medication?

How soon will I start to feel better after taking heart medication?

Rose Marie Robertson, MD, FAHA, FACC, FESC (Chief Science Officer and Past President of the Board of American Heart Association) gives expert video advice on: How soon will I start to feel better after taking heart medication? and more...

If you're having symptoms from heart disease, such as shortness of breath or chest discomfort, you can expect to start feeling better very soon after taking heart medication. Most heart medicines begin to act within hours, and the great majority of them have their full effect within a day or several days. It is important to realize that some of the medications we use, for example, to treat high blood pressure or other risk factors may actually take as long as a week or two. Medications we use to treat cholesterol may take longer than that to have their full effect. But, those in general, are not things that are making you feel bad; they're things that are putting you at risk. So in terms of symptoms, in general, if you're not feeling better within a few days of seeing the physician in their office, you ought to be calling back and asking if there's a problem.