(Reuters) – Tests for a blood-pressure regulating hormone called renin may help doctors decide which blood pressure drugs their patients should take, researchers said on Wednesday.
They said a mismatch between drugs and patient characteristics may help explain why many people do not benefit from blood pressure drugs, and testing for renin levels may help.
“The one-size-fits-all approach must be abandoned,” said Dr. Curt Furberg of Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina, who wrote a commentary on the studies in the American Journal of Hypertension.
Currently, fewer than half of patients are helped when they take just one blood pressure drug, and many must take more than one to keep blood pressure down.
A study in May in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that about half of the 65 million people in the United States with high blood pressure have it under control.
(5 votes, average: 4.20 out of 5)
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“Currently, fewer than half of patients are helped when they take just one blood pressure drug, and many must take more than one to keep blood pressure down”.
An idea may be to find out WHY renin levels have gone up, and treat the cause.
May be then medication may not even be needed.
If less than 50% of people treated with blood pressure medication are helped than clearly medication does not work and is not an effective solution.
1 pill a day = 365 pills a year = 10 950 pills over 30 years.
2 pills a day = 730 pills a year = 21 900 pills over 30 years.
5 pills a day = 1 825 pills a year = 54 750 pills over 30 years.
No wonder the kidneys get stuffed up!
This should be a wake-up call for people whose blood pressure is borderline. These people may have a good chance to reduce their blood pressure by adopting a healthy life style.
Yes, it is inconvenient and time-consuming to purchase and cook healthy food, but “you’re worth it.”
In my humble opinion, there is no such thing as “blood pressure control”. High blood pressure is suppressed by medication and unless drastic lifestyle changes are made it will creep up again as the body gets used to the medication.
Look what happens to a balloon if it is constantly kept inflated. It never goes back to it’s normal shape and loses its elasticity. That’s what happens to your arteries. Despite medication they become crooker and crooker, and you’ll need more and more medication.
That said, if your blood pressure is high or dangerously high you MUST see a doctor and a good dietitian.