Q: Dr.Rowena why was it 20 yrs or so ago that the guidelines for optimum blood pressure was 140/90 and this was acceptable. Now it is 120/80 and they might even lower it more? Is it the big pharmaceutical companies that control these guide lines. Is it about more money?
A: It is not big pharmacy companies that are setting the standards for lowering blood pressure. A task force of doctors reviews clinical studies and makes recommendations. Recent studies have shown that lower levels of blood pressure reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke. Heart disease is the leading cause of death. It kills more people than cancer. Keeping your blood pressure at 120/80 or below may extend your life.
American Heart Association Blood Pressure Guidelines >>
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Not too long before 140/90…….the normal limit was 150/100.
You hit upon the exact answer in your question.
The doctors are educated by Big Pharma. They both make more money getting you on poisonous hypertension drugs. They even would like to get you on “pre-hypertension” drugs.
America is sick enough. Reject their greed that is poisoning so many!
Is the greed of the supplement companies any different than the greed of the pharmaceutical companies? You can ignore the data on blood pressure if you want, after all lots of people keep smoking and manage to ignore the data on smoking.
Hi D. Carestia,
Glad I caught you on here today. It has been 4 weeks since I took my last BP med. I just want to thank you for all of the good advice. When I get it written up, I will write you more information and how much your advise helped me through this.
Amen D. Carestia…I couldn’t have put it any better.
D. Carestia, you are a constant source of reassurance and inspiration. Your accounts of how you have overcome your health problems spur me on to stick to a similar regime – and it works!
Thank you.
If more people have strokes and heart attacks with readings of 140/90 than at 120/80, why shouldn’t the lower number be the ideal? If the doctors are looking at statistical results, why fault Big Pharma for the lowering of the norm? I hate taking my pills and am trying to get off them, very gradually, but I don’t think your argument is sound.
scare tactics work good on desperate people with such diseases; ie. diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol… cholesterol baseline is changing with new research?
I just read an article that said new recommendations would include testing children for high blood pressure and cholesterol . . . Big Pharma is scary!
“Keeping your blood pressure at 120/80 or below may extend your life.” But meds may (in fact probably will shorten your life. I say, stay as natural as much as, and as long as, possible.
Good suggestion and I might add exercise! I guess if you have to take medication take the lowest dosage that is effective; the side affects may be as bad as high BP.
It is unbelievable the control that Big Pharma has and it continues to get worse..ie: blood pressure recommendations, cholesterol guidelines etc. They continue to make the population sicker and not better with all the drugs.
A recent article related to the “creeping guidelines” and benefits of treating pre-hypertension:
————-
Benefits Iffy for Drugs in Mild Hypertension
By Todd Neale, Senior Staff Writer, MedPage Today
Published: August 16, 2012
Reviewed by Robert Jasmer, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco and Dorothy Caputo, MA, BSN, RN, Nurse Planner
Action Points
Using antihypertensive medications to treat adults with mild hypertension and no previous cardiovascular events does not appear to reduce mortality or subsequent events, at least through about 5 years.
Note that that lack of benefit was accompanied by a significant increase in withdrawals due to adverse effects, which occurred at a rate of 8.9% in the single trial that provided that information.
Using antihypertensive medications to treat adults with mild hypertension and no previous cardiovascular events does not appear to reduce mortality or subsequent events, at least through about 5 years, a meta-analysis showed.
Antihypertensive treatment in patients with a systolic blood pressure of 140 mm HG to 159 mm Hg or a diastolic pressure of 90 mm HG to 99 mm Hg did not significantly reduce all-cause mortality, stroke, coronary heart disease, or total cardiovascular events, Diana Diao, of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, and colleagues reported in a Cochrane review.
That lack of benefit was accompanied by a significant increase in withdrawals due to adverse effects (RR 4.80, 95% CI 4.14 to 5.57), which occurred at a rate of 8.9% in the single trial that provided that information.
But based on the generally low quality of the evidence and the limited number of trials, the authors concluded that more randomized controlled trials are needed to determine the risk-benefit balance of using antihypertensives for primary prevention in patients with mild hypertension.
“The results are not surprising to the people who’ve been in the blood pressure field for a while,” said Roger Blumenthal, MD, an American Heart Association (AHA) spokesperson and director of the Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Heart Disease at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
Blumenthal told MedPage Today that the review highlights the lack of a large number of trials supporting the use of antihypertensives in patients with mild hypertension.
He added, however, that the totality of the evidence — including observational studies — supports the detrimental effects of systolic blood pressures in the 150 mm Hg to 160 mm Hg range sustained over the long term, including heart failure, stroke, and end-stage renal failure.
For that reason, he said, guidelines from the AHA and other major societies support the use of antihypertensive drugs in patients with mild hypertension who have few or no additional cardiovascular risk factors, albeit after an attempt at achieving blood pressure reductions through lifestyle changes for 6 months or more.
Although the findings of the review may make some clinicians reassess how long they try lifestyle changes before switching to drug treatments for their patients, Blumenthal said, “for people who can’t lower their blood pressure satisfactorily, I think judicious use of medication will still remain the main recommendation of the American Heart Association.”
Diao and colleagues included four randomized controlled trials that either provided individual patient data — to allow for the selection of patients with mild hypertension only — or had a patient population that was at least 80% mild hypertension.
The trials included were the Australian National Blood Pressure Study (ANBP), Medical Research Council (MRC), Systolic Hypertension in the Elderly Program (SHEP), and Veterans Administration-National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (VA-NHLBI) trials. There were a total of 8,912 participants who either received antihypertensive drugs or placebo.
In the pooled analysis, antihypertensive treatment was not associated with significant reductions in any of the outcomes of interest versus placebo:
All-cause mortality for for 4 to 5 years of treatment: relative risk 0.85 (95% CI 0.63 to 1.15)
Coronary heart disease: RR 1.12 (95% CI 0.80 to 1.57)
Stroke: RR 0.51 (95% CI 0.24 to 1.08)
Total cardiovascular events: RR 0.97 (95% CI 0.72 to 1.32)
The nonsignificant reductions in stroke and mortality are consistent with a real benefit of treatment that didn’t reach statistical significance because of the low numbers of events and participants, according to the authors.
“Thus it remains possible, but highly unlikely, that there is an overall significant benefit of treating this group of patients with currently used medications,” they wrote.
Even so, they added, assuming that the benefits of treatment for patients with mild hypertension are comparable to those seen for those with moderate-to-severe hypertension, the absolute advantage would be small.
They estimated that 400 people would have to be treated with first-line drug treatments for 5 years to prevent one death. And the number needed to treat to prevent one cardiovascular event over that same time-frame would be 128.
“It is likely that many such patients given this information would choose nondrug treatments for hypertension (e.g., diet, exercise, stress management, etc.) rather than drug therapy,” Diao and colleagues wrote. “They would be even less likely to choose drug treatment when they were told that these estimated benefits are a best-case scenario and uncertain based on the best available evidence at this time from this review.”
The review received external support from a Canadian Institutes of Health Research grant to the Hypertension Review Group, Canada and from a British Columbia Ministry of Health Grant to the Therapeutics Initiative, Canada. It also received internal support from the Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics at the University of British Columbia, the Clinical Pharmacology Department at Hospices Civils de Lyon, France, the French National Center for Scientific Research, Claude Bernard University Lyon I, and the BIMBO project, SYSCOMM 2008 Nr 002, ANR-www.agence-nationale-recherche.fr, France.
The authors did not report any conflicts of interest.
I’m not as cynical about the influence of the drug companies as some. But the previous study is exactly correct as was the original guideline of 150 or 160 over 100 — as far as treating high blood pressure with drugs is concerned. (Other studies have had similar results too.)
You do have some health protecting to do and lowering your blood pressure IS a good idea the more it goes up from the 115 over 75 now thought ideal.
BUT, upgrading your eating habits and getting enough exercise is far more protective than taking the drugs in the range between 115 over 75 and 160 over 100.
Why take the drugs and feel sick all the time instead of well, when you won’t benefit that much?!
If you have been a smoker and stop and you have been eating fatty meats from grain fed animals and using oils like corn and soy with high omega 6 content and eating too much junky packaged foods with too much salt, THAT you should reverse ASAP if your blood pressure gets into the 130 over 80 range or higher.
Staying completely away from tobacco smoke and stopping that kind of food and drinking zero soft drinks and eating the DASH II diet with extra virgin olive oil or the Mediterranean diet with less salt and more vegetables AND getting regular exercise IS indicated.
Your blood pressure will go down. If you have been really overdoing the bad diet and soft drinks and lose over 30 pounds after a few months of eating right and exercise which is common, your blood pressure will go down more!
But a new study found that while the blood pressure drugs are NOT indicated at that level, doing this list of things, particularly regular exercise, all of which help prevent heart attacks and stroke directly IS protective!
So while I’m a bit less cynical than D. Carestia and the lower levels of blood pressure really ARE better, I COMPLETELY agree with him drugs are NOT the way to go.
Let’s not forget the impact of this on health insurance premiums. I’ve recently had to shop for individual health insurance for my husband and myself when we lost coverage with my husband’s company when he retired. The insurance companies check your record of prescriptions, and if you’ve been on virtually any medication in the past 2 years (maybe more depending on the company), they use that to justify raising your premium. As more and more folks go on Rx for blood pressure and cholesterol, the insurance companies will be raking in the bucks with higher premiums.
Can you tell me some more about this “task force” or was that simply a colorful choice of words for hyperbolic effect?
I went into the doctor for knee arthritis. Three quarters of her conversation to me was about my high blood pressure which was 130/90. Figure it out for yourself.
I can relate to that. I have bursitis in the shoulder and have been in chronic pain and discomfort for several weeks. My BP at the clinic was 138/78 and the doctor recommended a 4-hour holter monitor. She considered the risks of having such high BP more important than my shoulder pain.
I know several people on bp meds who eat crap, lots of salt and fast foods and don’t exercise, are overweight etc etc. Seems they prefer to take meds 🙁 Personally I do everything in my power to stay off them.
They are interested in controlling numbers not healing. Big Pharma and the doctors and the MD committees are one and the same these days. Out for profit. There are honest, caring doctors who think outside the parameters prescribed by the corporations, but they are rare.
I was put on bp meds for 138/85. Wrecked my life for the time I was on them. Big side effects. Went to a Cambridge UK trained cardiologist — did a 24 hour monitor, checked my heart health, then weaned me off the toxic medication. Look at the 24 hour average, not a single or even multiple readings.
Sometimes it’s a bit high, sometimes it’s “normal” — which changes by the decade — and sometimes the bp is a little low. Guess what….the highs and middles and lows are perfectly normal. Averages…averages…
It’s all about $$$. The doctors and Pharma don’t really care that much about your well being. Your health is in YOUR own hands.
Well-said, Nick. That’s exactly right!
Took bp meds for 1 year, Dr. kept uping dosage. Got so I could not walk anylonger, could not figure out what it was. Some thought Gout, Diabetes until I noticed that exactly 2 hours after taking meds pain was awful. Stopped med, which I know I should not have, and guess what. Pain got better in 24 hours, and completely gone in 48. My BP is the same with or without. Thinking my BP increase was mostly because I was worried about my health. I am still on nothing, Dr agrees, but I am trying to lose weight and I might add now I can walk making this easy.
I part from the simple observation available to anybody and that is the fact that when we were young we could do things we can not do when old or older, the reason for this is because our bodies as they age they deteriorate, for instance when old we can not run as fast or as long as when we were young , we can not lift or carry as heavy weights as when young, our mental faculties are not as sharp as when young, we can not digest the same foods or volume as when young, we can not do the same acrobatics as when young because our tendons are not as elastic as when young nor do we posses the same elasticity or flexibility, simply put our internal organs suffer the same deterioration as our external appearance.
Nobody expects from us to do the same things we did as when young, why is it then expected from us to have the same blood pressure as when young?
Isn’t high blood pressure part of the same process of aging just as having sagging skin, weaker muscles, weaker stomach with less gastric juices for instance?
Isn’t medicating a person to lower blood pressure forcing a state of being using unnatural methods to create doped human being instead of forcing a person to eat better diets, practice healthy habits and practice physical activities, transforming the person into a more healthy person ?
Hasn’t the medical profession changed to accommodate the drug approach? For instance now days when we go to see the doctor before we open ours mouths we are already checked for BP? If its high we are already given a prescription of drugs, they alter our homeostasis to the point we become dependent on them accompanied of all kinds of awful side effects, and there it went our quality of life?
I remember when BP was 100 plus your age. That reading was OK
Everyone on here has posted EXCELLENT comments; and I could not agree with you more. Please check out Dr. Mercola’s site….you will find honest, valuable, yet shocking information about everything you have just written about. I have been a follower since early this year and it has REALLY opened up my eyes to what is going on with the medical Drs., etc.
By lowering the BP data from 140/90 to 120/80 would definitely double or even triple the number of potential consumers of antihypertensive drugs taht means billions of sales revenues for both the big pharms and doctors. I was a victim to have been prescribed antihypertensive medication only at 130/85 years ago by my doctor years ago, which had led me to become a asthma patient after taking the drug for years. Having stopped the drug and gone for a more conscentious life style, my asthma (acquired) was gone and my BP had been under 140/90 all the times. I am not sure about my mortality, but I know I am much happier now without asthma and the drug.
Hi Can you please give me Dr Mercola’s site address as I am concerned about my husband. He is taking medication for BP at the mo and is getting peculiar feelings in his head and I noticed some confusion. He is also tired a lot. I would like him to come off these drugs personally and want to give him some persuasive info to do this. Thanks. AJ
Think Dr. Mercola’s site’s website name is – http://www.mercola.com .
I would guess that the reason BP meds do not increase mortality is due to the simple fact that they don’t cure the problem and just treat the symptoms. The root cause for hypertension is atherosclerosis and endothelial dysfunction. Diet will address this much better than medication. I like to quote Dr. Fuhrman “You cannot buy your health in a bottle, you must earn it”
I recently went to renew my prescription for atenonol 50mg. When the nurse took my BP I thought she was going to faint. It was 220/110. I am 65 do not smoke, drink, go to zumba three times per week and silver sneakers 3 times per week. The Dr. put me on Losartane 50mg which I cut in half so 25mg. My BP hasn’t been that high again. It went as low as 106/63. He kept me in his office did an EKG and had me take add’l med in his office. All my blood work is good. He chalked it up to genetics. I am gaining weight which I think is from the meds as I watch everything I eat. Low sodium, low sugar. He also said it was my age as your metabolish slows down with age. I don’t buy it and am very frustrated but afraid to stop meds.
Don’t rule out “White Coat Hypertension” or “Labile Hypertension”. A single high reading in the office does not constitute hypertension. Some people spike in the doctors office but have relatively good BP at home. Medication will not stop these spikes. I know, because I was in the same boat.
Yor doctor has given you pure hogwash..It’s not metabolism or genetics. This is the standard answer for essential hypertension which means they don’t have a clue and blame everything on genetics. We’ve been misinformed. This is not predominantly genetic. As Dave mentions, it might simply be white coat hypertension, and if not it’s the Western diet. Elminate meat, dairy and oil and you’ll be off those meds in 6 months. Trust me, I went through this last year and now have normal BP without medication.
My bp is usually around 130 or 140/80. I’ve also been prescribed a prescription drug for high triglycerides and cholesterol. Yep, another statin which I can’t seem to tolerate – Livalo. My mother had breast cancer, having both breasts surgically removed. I’ve learned that statins raise the risk of breast cancer by 1500%! Can you believe it? My options now, are do I choose to die from a possible heart attack or stroke, or do I take the risk of getting breast cancer? I eat a healthy diet, but need to lose about 20 lbs. and to exercise more. That may be all I need to do. I’m really concerned about the high triglycerides, but I’m through with taking statins. I have Hypothyroidism and even though I’m on Levothyroxine, I still feel tired and sluggish. My doctor told me my blood sugar is borderline in addition to high cholesterol. I told him maybe I should see an Endocrinologist, but he said they couldn’t do anymore for me than he is doing. I’ve read that Hypothyroidism can be complicated and that it takes balancing ratios, so I think I should give this specialist a try. I don’t want to end of taking a lot of prescription drugs for something that may be due to immune issue. My doctor knows how I feel, yet he keeps prescribing.
Sandy, you may want to try Adrenal Health by Gaia Herbs for the Thyroid. I had borderline high TSH levels last year and now they’re well within normal limits due to this supplement. Hypothyroidism is one of the most undiagnosed conditions and can contribute to high cholesterol, hypertension and heart disease.
Thanks Jason. I suppose it couldn’t hurt to try it, although I’m still strongly considering seeing an Endocrinologist. I need to know if I’m on the right medication and strength for Hypothyroidism. I just don’t feel right and haven’t for some time. I hope his expertise will give me some answers.
My motto is always go “natural” and avoid side effect ridden pharmaceuticals whenever possible. You might be surprised how effective this herbal product is. It was recommended by my naturopathic doctor. I’ve seem my ND more than my regular doctor and got better results quite honestly.
Statins medications lower CQ10, a known side effect, this coenzyme is important in the production of energy, lowering BP, and many other body functions.
My wife was prescribed fish oil for high cholesterol (Pharmaceutical grade) but you can get the same results by eating sardines plus is an excellent protein with minerals and is low in mercury, there are many brands of sardines, I like Kings George’s from Norway, two layers, they are very small and tasty, you can also find boneless and skinless sardines in olive oil if you are delicate.
Low thyroid levels can cause high cholesterol plus many other issues, there is a lot of controversy as to how to treat it, meaning by the numbers or by the symptoms, read over the subject and then decide, I think Dr. Mercola talked about it.
I have also noticed a new trend about this BP business, it used to be that a doctor would give you a prescription for 6 months to a year, now in the better interest of you health…? some doctors are prescribing BP medication from 30 to 90 days, in that way the deal works like this, one for you one for me, meaning you get the prescription money I get the doctors visit.
I haven’t noticed that. I get a prescription for 90-days supply from Express Scripts, but it can be refilled 3 times. Plus, I don’t have to have a doctor’s visit to renew the prescription. It’s bad enough that most doctor’s visits give you only 2-3 minutes of time, after waiting an hour, but if I had to have a visit to get prescriptions, I’d really holler about that.
I want to clarify that I get my initial prescription from a doctor, but it is filled through a mail-order pharmacy. I also want to make it clear that I am very unhappy with the present state of our treatment for chronic conditions.
I want to clarify that I get my initial prescription from a doctor, then get it filled through a mail-order pharmacy. I also want to make it clear that I am very unhappy with our present treatment of chronic conditions in our American “health care” system.
In response to Dr. Rowena’s answer to the question, “Do Pharmaceutical Companies Control The Blood Pressure Guidelines?
I beg to differ with Dr. Rowena’s response. Marcia Angell is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. She joined the editorial staff of NEJM in 1979, and became executive editor in 1988 and interim editor-in-chief from 1999 until June 2000. She states, “It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of The New England Journal of Medicine.”
If one wants to know more, one should read her book, “The Truth About The Drug Companies, how they deceive us and what to do about it.”
The plain & simple truth is that this is a very corrupt and immoral industry, the “INDUSTRY WITH DISEASE” that is stealing the public blind while masking symptoms by allowing the underlying cause of these symptoms (the disease) to run its course. Its the perfect “plan” used by these egregiously nefarious criminals. This my dear friends and fellow victims is what I refer to as “Rockefeller Medicine”, for it is these very individuals along with their international banking criminal colleagues that control the pharmaceutical industry and the medical dogma that exists in the United States of America. (They control everything else, by the way, which is why the world is in such a mess).
Physicians in this country do not receive an education, rather, they receive an indoctrination. This is the real reason why they don’t allow foreign doctors to enter the US to practice medicine for they have not been sufficiently brainwashed and therefore would most likely not be very compliant soldiers of the pharmaceutical cartel.
My fellow americans, excuse me, fellow human beings, its time to shake off the state of stupidity that we are all in, turn off the television and begin to educate ourselves with the truth and take responsibility for our own health. I know that if you are reading this, you are in the process of doing so or have already done so.
A few of the books that have been helpful to me are:
“Lipitor, Thief of Memory”-Duane Graveline, M.D.
“The Statin Damage Crisis”-Duane Graveline, M.D.
“Why Animals Don’t Get Heart Disease But People Do.”-Matthias Rath, M.D.
“The Great Cholesterol Con”-Malcolm Kendrick, M.D.
“Fat and Cholesterol are Good for You!”- Uffe Ravnskov,M.D. PhD
“The Truth About the Drug Companies”- Marcia Angell, M.D.
“Reverse Heart Disease Now”-Stephen Sinatra, M.D. , James Roberts, M.D.
Wonderful reading these posts! Thanks to all. I agree that Big Pharm is running the show. When they have new medications to treat something, low and behold the guidelines for that condition change, and I believe this is the case with BP guidelines. See also the guidelines and drugs etc. for osteoporosis and that newly created category: osteopina.
You may also want to add the book “Lower your Blood Pressure in 8 weeks” also by Stephen Sinatra MD. I also highly recommend “Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease” by Caldwell Esselstyn MD
Hi. This information proved to be very useful. Can you please provide more aspects of this subject? Thanks. I told her that I would take our son to the arcade, and I would get a soda or something.