
New blood pressure guidelines say half of adults have high blood pressure - jrs235
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2017/11/13/blood-pressure-of-130-is-the-new-high-according-to-first-update-of-guidelines-in-14-years/
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jrs235
Why do I have a feeling that this is driven by pharma to increase drug
prescriptions to lower blood pressure?

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troydavis
Although the WaPo article isn’t a primary source, it seems to say the opposite
and cites primary sources:

> Much of the data to support the update came from Systolic Blood Pressure
> Intervention Trial or SPRINT trial, a large-scale study of more than 9,000
> people sponsored by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute

And regarding the proposed treatment:

> But the report's authors predicted relatively few of those who fall into the
> new hypertensive category will need medication. Rather, they hope that many
> found with the early stages of the condition will be able to address it
> through lifestyle changes such as losing weight, improving their diet,
> getting more exercise, consuming less alcohol and sodium and lowering
> stress.

Here’s the primary author’s home page, though the report isn’t on it:
[https://med.virginia.edu/endocrinology-
metabolism/research/e...](https://med.virginia.edu/endocrinology-
metabolism/research/endocrine-labs/robert-carey/)

Update: here’s an analysis of the number of people affected by the lower
threshold:
[http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/early/2017/11/08/CIRCULA...](http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/early/2017/11/08/CIRCULATIONAHA.117.032582)
(“Compared with the JNC 7 guideline, the 2017 ACC/AHA guideline results in a
substantial increase in the prevalence of hypertension but a small increase in
the percentage of U.S. adults recommended antihypertensive medication.”)

