What Is Spironolactone And Is It A Diuretic?

— -- Question: What is spironolactone and is it a diuretic?

Answer: Spironolactone is a medicine that is really old. It's been around for decades. And it is classified pharmacologically as a diuretic, even though its diuretic effect at the doses we use in heart failure are very low and really have very minimal diuretic effect on its own. It sometimes does seem to increase or augment the loop diuretic effect in some patients, but again this effect is fairly small. So I don't really consider spironolactone as a diuretic per se at least when someone has significant heart failure, needs a significant amount of diuresis to happen.