Blood Pressure Guidelines

This has gotten a lot of attention and discussion, and I'm happy it is being looked at critically. We should all hope that our experts re-examine their protocols and science that backs it now and then. Happened to our food guide, to tobacco consumption, new research says pot use is not so benign after all, and we're getting better science governing the use of statins as well.

This is interesting.

I recently asked my doctor what a target heart rate should be for me as I felt I needed to lower my blood pressure medicine.

She shared that a target rate would be 135/80 with anything under that being better.

I'll hang on to this and ask during my next appt.

Thank you for sharing.

It doesn't give any age or other health items with it.
For example my GP says that in the 130's is OK for older people due to
hardening of the arteries.
It shouldn't be a one size fits all!

What new evidence supported changing the BP cutoff for hypertension to 130/80 mm Hg? Nine trials contributed to the ACC/AHA meta-analysis on which the guideline was based.[7] Trials selectively enrolled persons at high risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), with follow-up ranging from 2.0 to 5.7 years. The two largest trials followed patients for an average of 3.3 and 4.7 years.[6,8]

No statistically significant benefit was found for all-cause mortality, CVD mortality, heart failure, or renal events when the lower BP cutoff was used, and the difference for fatal or nonfatal myocardial infarction was borderline nonsignificant.

What is significant is the profits of Big Pharma and changing the guidelines added millions of new customers for the drugs that lower blood pressure.

Interesting that European numbers are higher. I always thought I was an American! Seriously, my sister-in-law has been on statins most of her life. Guess what? She has blockages all over! How are they dealing with it? More medicine!

Pharmaceutical companies, pill pushing doctors, and the AMA (among others) are killing Americans. All medications have side effects.

Did you know that the drug ads are write-offs for pharma? Outrageous! https://www.csrxp.org/csrxp-analysis-finds-big-pharmas-direct-to-consumer-dtc-advertising-costs-u-s-taxpayers-billions-of-dollars/

And the doctors all get raises!

I posted this because I believe it is relevant to the purpose of this site which is to provide information about heart rhythm conditions. It was about BP and not about doctors or pharmaceutical companies. If you don't like the way that health care is being provided, then take your rants to a site where your post will be relevant.

Thank you.
I for one found your post very helpful, and have bookmarked it to refer to when answering questions on Mayo Connect about blood pressure concerns.
It seems most people don't know what the thresholds are for elevated and high blood pressure, they just hear the doctor say "you have high blood pressure." Having a place to point, and an easily readable explanation is very helpful.

My blood pressure varies....if I'm just sitting at my computer (and not looking at the news) it's usually less than 120 - 65. If I just climbed a flight of stairs, it's around 131 - 78, and if I'm feeling stressed, like when I experience palpitations, it will be over 140 /80. It would be useful to have an ambulatory BP monitor that continuously checks BP and uses an algorithm that averages all the data to a meaningful number.