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/

[jrs235]

Why do I have a feeling that this is driven by pharma to increase drug prescriptions to lower blood pressure?

[troydavis → jrs235]

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...

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... (“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.”)