What is a "diuretic", and why is it important for treating heart disease?

What is a "diuretic", and why is it important for treating heart disease?

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...

A diuretic is medicine that helps the kidney get rid of fluid from the body. It used to be particularly important in heart failure, because patients would accumulate fluid and then would have symptoms of ankle swelling. Fluid retention that would make them very short of breath, particularly when they would lie down at night, and a diuretic was really the only way to get rid of that fluid. We now have very effective other medications in heart failure, so although we still use diuretics in heart failure, they're not quite as critical as they used to be. On the other hand, in hypertension and high blood pressure, we now know that starting with a diuretic is really the safest and best way to treat people with high blood pressure. Diuretics have been around a long time, they're old-fashioned and quite safe medications, and we now have evidence that these rather inexpensive medications are just as good, as a starting medication, as many more expensive ones.