Blood pressure-lowering medication can prevent serious cardiovascular conditions
Blood pressure-lowering medication can prevent serious cardiovascular conditions such as strokes, heart failure and heart attacks even in adults with normal blood pressure, according to new research published in
The Lancet.
Importantly, the study found the beneficial effects of treatment were similar regardless of the starting blood pressure level, in both people who had previously had a heart attack or stroke and in those who had never had heart disease.
The authors say that the findings have immediate and important implications for global clinical guidelines that typically limit blood pressure-lowering treatment to individuals with high blood pressure (usually above 140/90 mmHg).
Millions more Britons could be prescribed pills that lower their blood pressure to help ward off strokes and heart attacks, a study has suggested.
Researchers found that blood pressure-lowering medication reduces the risk of serious heart conditions – even in adults with healthy blood pressure.
The benefits of treatment in preventing strokes, heart disease and death were found to be similar regardless of the starting blood pressure level of the patient, and whether or not they had pre-existing heart conditions.
Experts said the findings have important implications for current NHS guidelines that typically limit the medication to those with high blood pressure. Lead author Professor Kazem Rahimi, from the University of Oxford, said: ‘Our findings are of great importance to the debate concerning blood pressure treatment.
BP Lowering Useful in CV Risk Management Even at Normal Levels medscape.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from medscape.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Blood pressure-lowering medication may prevent serious conditions such as strokes, heart failure and heart attacks even in adults with normal blood pressure, new research suggests.
The benefits of treatment were similar regardless of the starting blood pressure level, in both people who had previously had a heart attack or stroke and in those who had never had heart disease, the study found.
Researchers say the findings have immediate and important implications for global clinical guidelines that typically limit blood pressure-lowering treatment to individuals with high blood pressure.
Lead author Professor Kazem Rahimi, University of Oxford, said: “Our findings are of great importance to the debate concerning blood pressure treatment.
email article
Use of antihypertensive drugs had no consistent association with cancer risk, according to a review of 33 clinical studies.
Patients treated with any of five different classes of antihypertensive drugs had essentially the same cancer risk as that of placebo-treated patients. Comparisons of each antihypertensive class against all the others showed no association with an increased risk of cancer, with the exception of calcium channel blockers (CCBs), which had only a modestly higher risk versus the other drug classes (HR 1.06, 95% CI 1.01-1.11).
Though reassuring, the data do not close the door on the issue, as some comparisons had insufficient data to rule out the possibility of excess cancer risk, reported Kazem Rahimi, DM, of the University of Oxford in England, and colleagues in