Beta blockers are prescribed to heart attack patients regardless they provide any  clear benefits according to a landmark trial. The daily tablets which can even trigger fatigue, nausea,and even sexual dysfuction, are offered to the majority of Heart attack patients. Around 60, 000 people are prescribed beta blockers every year in the UK and many will remain on the pills for life.

The trail found that for about 50 per cent of patients, they do not reduce the risk of death or further heart attack. Experts claim that the findings will change the way heart attack patients are treated on the NHS freeing tens and thousands from uncomfortable side effects. The tablets is to block the effects of hormones such as adrenaline, which are known to increase the heart rate and blood pressure. This reduces the workload on the heart, helping the organ to recover after the stress of an heart attack. Recently more effective heart attack treatments have arrived including a coronary angloplasty – which involves surgically inserting a balloon into the blocked artery to reopen it, which is followed by the insertion of a stent –  a small mesh tune that holds the artery open.

The finding that beta blockers are ineffective for many was formally announced at the American College of Cardiology in Atlanta, Georgia, yesterday The trial of 5. 000 recent heart attack patients across 45 countries concluded that the only patients  who stand to benefit from Beta blockers are those with heart failure , an incurable condition that causes the heart to stop pumping effectively.

Dr. Trroels Yodigegn interventional cardiologist at Lund University in Sweden and the study’s author said “For patients with no signs of heart failure, this trail establishes that there’s no indication that routine use of beta block blockers is beneficial. Beta blockers are also used to treat other health conditions including angina- chest pain caused by the narrowing of the arteries supplying blood to the heart – and atrial fibriliation, an irregular heart beat.