Blood Pressure Drugs can Help Heart Patients Without Hypertension

In people with heart disease, the use of blood pressure lowering medications can be useful, even in those who do not have high blood pressure, new research suggest. The study establish that when people without high blood pressure were given blood pressure drugs, their risk of congestive heart failure, stroke, all-cause humanity and a combination of cardiovascular disease outcomes were decreased. "If someone has had a previous heart attack or other cardiovascular event, and their blood pressure is in the usual range, they are still at risk of future cardiovascular events.

There may be an further benefit to giving an anti-hypertensive medication to these folks," said study author Angela M. Thompson, a doctoral research fellow in the department of epidemiology at Tulane University School of Public Health. "Current treatment suggestion advise treatment when the blood pressure is over 140/90 mm/Hg, but our study shows that you can get benefits even when the blood pressure is below that," Thompson explained. In information, the risk for cardiovascular disease begins at 115 mm/Hg of systolic pressure, according to background information in the study.

In addition, in adults 55 years and older, the lifetime risk of rising hypertension is more than 90 percent, the study noted. The study, which was funded by Tulane University and the National Institutes of Health, was published in the March 2 matter of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Cardiovascular disease is the foremost cause of death in the United States, according to background information in the study. About 54 percent of strokes and 46 percent of heart disease cases occur in people who have blood pressure levels in the usual range, the study reported.