My (simplified) take on this topic:
Like your nose and earlobes, your adrenals continue to grow throughout your life. As they grow they produce more and more angiotension 1, an enzyme they produce to moderate blood pressure. Your body turns that into angiotension 2 which engages angiotension type 2 receptors that line your blood vessels. When those receptor cells are engaged with angiotension type 2 they constrict the blood vessels causing them to shrink, thus raising your blood pressure.
There are 3 primary BP meds - diuretics, ACEs (angiotension converting enzyme inhibitors) and ARBs (angiotension receptor blockers).
Diuretics lower the amount of water in your blood reducing blood volume and thus lowering blood pressure. These are the oldest BP meds and are effective for many persons.
ARBs engage with the angiotension type 2 receptors, blocking the uptake of angiotension 2 by occupying those receptors. The ARB chems do not activate those cells though, so the blood vessel walls do not constrict and your blood pressure does not go up. (This is similar to how enzalutamide (Xtandi) plugs up testosterone receptors in a PCa cell, filling the receptors but disallowing the cancer cell growth and/or reproduction which testosterone in that same receptor would normally encourage.)
ACE inhibitors reduce the amount of angiotension type 1 that is converted into angiotension type 2. This leaves the existing angiotension type 2 receptors unengaged and hungry, your blood pressure does not go up.
Most COVID 19 deaths have been attributed to really severe pneumonia. Many of those cases were
secondary bacterial pneumonia infections brought on by damage and weakness due to the severity of the novel viral infection. Regular bacterial pneumonia can be addressed with antibiotics like Z Packs (azithromycin) or pennicillin.
Recent autopsies (last few days) found that many guys who died from COVID 19 - associated pneumonia were on ACE BP meds. A side effect of taking an ACE BP med appears to encourage avioli (those little air bags in your lungs) to grow extra angiotension type 2 receptors that just kind - of hang out waiting to be engaged with some angiotension type 2. COVID 19 appears to be able to fill that desire for them in a big way (especially in the lower lungs), thus giving you
viral pneumonia which we can do very little about
.
I am able to take the time to write this as my appointment to get my second pneumonia shot is at 9 AM today. Already have the first one down. Pharmacist assures me that this one packs a bit of a wallop as it covers 13 types of pneumonia bacillus whereas the first only covers the 3 most common. The first one put me in bed for 2 days with flu - like symptoms.