Norvasc® is a drug for lowering blood pressure. The active ingredient is amlodipine. The active ingredient amlodipine contained in Norvasc® is a so-called calcium antagonist, also known as a calcium channel blocker.
Mode of action
Norvasc® lowers blood pressure by blocking special calcium channels in the walls of the blood vessels, i.e. preventing them from working. These channels are important so that the muscle cells in the walls of the blood vessels can tense up. If these channels are blocked, the walls of the blood vessels relax and the vessels dilate.
This mechanism is particularly effective in the medium-sized arteries (also called arterioles), i.e. in vessels leading away from the heart. On the one hand, this directly reduces blood pressure, since the same amount of blood can flow through a larger vessel diameter. This is like letting water flow from a straw into a garden hose.
The pressure in the straw would be higher than in the garden hose. This is how it behaves, albeit to a lesser extent, with the tensed (straw) and relaxed (garden hose) blood vessels. Secondly, the heart has to pump against a lower resistance.
This means that the load on the heart is reduced by the high pressure against which it has to work. Norvasc® also works very well on the vessels that supply the heart itself. These so-called “coronary vessels” supply the heart muscle itself with blood. If they are dilated, the blood supply to the heart increases.
What is Norvasc® used for?
Norvasc® is most commonly used to lower blood pressure. This can be done either with Norvasc® alone or in combination with other antihypertensive drugs. Another area of application is various forms of breast tightness (angina pectoris).
Angina pectoris can be divided into a stable and an unstable form. In both cases, the vasodilating effect of Norvasc® is used to improve the blood flow to the heart. A final field of application, but without official approval, is the treatment of painful vascular spasms in the fingers, which occur especially in cold weather. This disease is called Raynaud’s disease, and is also often seen in people with scleroderma.
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