Millions more ‘should get blood pressure pills’

MILLIONS more adults should be prescribed blood pressure drugs to protect them from heart attacks and strokes, a study has found.

Treatments are currently only given to those with hypertension – extremely high blood pressure.

But Oxford University scientists found lowering blood pressure even from a healthy starting point significantly reduced the risk of developing heart disease in later life.

The researchers, presenting their findings at the European Society of Cardiology congress, said guidelines for the way the drugs are given should be rewritten to look at the overall risk of heart disease.

Statins – drugs which reduce cholesterol – are prescribed for anyone considered to have a 10 per cent chance of heart trouble within the next decade.

If a similar approach were to be taken for blood pressure drugs, roughly 12million people in the UK would become eligible – up from about one million who are currently given them.

Blood pressure is expressed as two numbers: systolic – the upper number – and diastolic – the lower one. People are considered to have hypertension if their blood pressure is above 140/90.

The study, involving data from 350,000 adults, found heart disease is prevented if blood pressure drops from much lower levels.

For every five-unit reduction in systolic blood pressure, scientists found the chance of having a stroke in the next four years dropped by 13 per cent, while the risk of a heart attack fell by 7 per cent. The chance of dying from cardiovascular causes dropped 5 per cent. Crucially, that reduction in risk remained fairly consistent no matter the starting point.

Professor Kazem Rahimi, who led the study, said: ‘If you have diabetes, or you are a smoker, and you have a 10 per cent risk of suffering a heart attack in the next decade, then reducing that risk is meaningful.’ Professor Sir Nilesh Samani,

of the British Heart Foundation, which funded the study, said: ‘This emphasises the importance of controlling blood pressure as well as possible, to reduce the risk of heart and circulatory diseases.’

Another study, by Emma Copland, from Oxford University, also showed that there is no evidence blood pressure drugs increase the risk of cancer after looking at data from 260,000 people in 31 trials.