Blood pressure pills ‘can benefit all adults’
Drug reduces danger of cardiovascular disease by 10pc even without pre-existing condition
All adults would benefit from taking a daily blood pressure pill to cut their risk of heart attack and stroke, a study has found. Oxford University concluded that reducing blood pressure was protective even when it was within what is considered to be the healthy range. In what is being described as a “paradigm shift”, it found that one daily dose cut the risk of serious cardiovascular disease by about 10 per cent, regardless of a person’s blood pressure to start with.
ALL adults would benefit from taking a daily blood pressure pill to cut their risk of heart attack and stroke, a study has found.
A major review by Oxford University concluded that reducing blood pressure was protective even when it is within what is considered to be the healthy range.
In what is being described as a “paradigm shift”, it found that taking one daily dose cut the risk of serious cardiovascular disease by about 10 per cent. The results were the same regardless of an person’s blood pressure to start with.
Published in The Lancet, the study’s findings indicate that potentially millions who are not currently eligible could benefit from antihypertensive medication. These include commonly prescribed drugs such as ramipril, sold under the brand name Altace, amlodipine, and various beta blockers.
About 14million people in the UK are thought to have high blood pressure, with 5million living with the condition undiagnosed, according to the British Heart Foundation.
Guidelines state that only those with high blood pressure should normally be considered for antihypertensives.
However, the new study of 340,000 people found that it was the size of an individual’s relative increase or decrease in blood pressure that determined their risk of heart attack or stroke, rather than the level itself.
Its authors have called for the guidelines to be changed so that people are not blocked from receiving antihypertensives simply because their blood pressure is not high enough or because they have not previously suffered a cardiovascular event.
Prof Kazem Rahimi, who led the research, told The Telegraph: “Antihypertensive medication is a preventative measure regardless of what your blood pressure is. It is likely that many people are not getting it who need it.”
The authors stopped short of calling for all adults to take the pills. There would be serious cost implications for the NHS, and for people with a very low risk of heart disease the inconvenience may outweigh the benefit, they said.
But Prof Rahimi said doctors should disregard an apparently healthy blood pressure when deciding whether to prescribe the drugs, and instead assess the patient’s risk of heart attack and stroke, using factors such as cholesterol levels, age and evidence of diabetes.
The use of the drugs in people with normal or mildly elevated blood pressure has been hotly debated, with studies producing conflicting conclusions.
Prof Sir Nilesh Samani, of the British Heart Foundation, said: “The benefits of lowering blood pressure are there whether you have pre-existing heart disease or not, and this study shows that lowering blood pressure – even if it is in the normal range – is associated with fewer heart attacks and strokes.”