BETA BLOCKERS – INTRODUCTION
The lifespan of any drug in modern medicine is short.
What seems like a miracle drug soon becomes “old hat” as others with claims of fewer side-effects come on the market.
One group maintaining their usefulness are the beta blockers, the term applied to those drugs with wide-ranging effects on the body and for which new uses keep appearing.
To understand how these drugs work, it is necessary to have some knowledge of the body’s autonomic nervous system.
This is what governs those functions of our bodies which are not under voluntary control. Our heart beats, we breathe, digest and absorb our food and our kidneys eliminate waste products, all independently of our wills.
These actions are under the control of the autonomic nervous system. The sympathetic part of this system, when stimulated, is what makes us get up and go.
The heart beats faster, the blood pressure rises, the breathing becomes deeper and digestion ceases.
The actions of the parasympathetic part of the autonomic nervous system are usually the reverse of those of the sympathetic.
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