Is Your Doctor Overdosing You on Blood Pressure Drugs?
May 17, 2015
English: Blood pressure measurement. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
For years we’ve been told that high blood pressure is the “silent killer” and that too many people put their lives in danger by not taking medications to control it.
Now, a new study indicates that the opposite problem is prevalent: Blood pressure often is overtreated, and it increases patients’ risk of kidney failure and death.
Researchers at Kaiser Permanente Southern California studied the records of almost 400,000 people with high blood pressure who were being treated with medication.
They found that patients whose readings were between 130/60 and 139/79 — a range doctors consider “prehypertension” — had the lowest kidney failure rates. Patients with readings considered ideal by experts — below 120/80 — were at substantially increased risk.
“Many studies of people with high blood pressure have shown that bringing extremely high blood pressure with the top number ranging from 190 to 200, down to readings of about 150 show resounding improvements in the risk for strokes, kidney failure, and heart attack,” said study leader nephrologist and hypertension expert John J. Sim, M.D.
“So, we made the assumption that if we further lowered it, even to levels under 120, that would be even better,” he told Newsmax Health. “The truth is there are no studies that have demonstrated that.”
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