Sharply Reducing Blood Pressure With Drugs Found to Save Lives
- Aggressive treatment lowers risk of deaths across race, gender
- Increased risk of side effects requires careful management
Blood pressure examination.
Photographer: Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
Doctors may soon be working harder than ever to lower blood pressure in millions of patients because of new research showing it could save thousands of lives.
The study, planned to run five years, was stopped two years early in September after researchers determined the advantages of aggressive treatment of high blood pressure, often with four or more drugs, were so clear. The full findings from about 9,360 people, all at least 50 years old and without diabetes, were released Monday at a meeting of the American Heart Association in Orlando, Florida.