Should we treat high blood pressure from 120/80?

 

March 25, 2011 - Many people with a diagnosis of hypertension would not need to seek treatment because they would no more likely to die prematurely than those with a pressure "normal". That's the conclusion of ^a study conducted at the University of Minnesota by the team of Brent Taylor, who analyzed the blood pressure of more than 20,000 people for 20 years.
At the end of the study, it appeared that many participants with too high pressure, according to the current definition of societies of cardiology (pressure above 120/80 mmHg), showed no increased mortality compared with people who normal blood pressure.
According to Brent Taylor, 100 million Americans could well be misclassified as hypertensive. He believes it is time to redefine the standards: "If mortality is greater when the pressure is higher than 120/80, then antihypertensive therapy may do more harm than good. "
In fact, this new study shows that it is important to consider both values ​​of blood pressure separately. The higher figure corresponds to the pressure of blood in the vessels when the heart contracts (systolic pressure), while the lowest figure reflects blood pressure when the heart relaxes (diastolic pressure).
After age 50, mortality increases as the systolic pressure is above 140, regardless of the value of the diastolic pressure. However, before 50 years, the study suggests that elevated diastolic pressure is more risky: the mortality increases to values ​​greater than 100 (while it increases only to a systolic pressure above 200). Brent Taylor proposes that this study will serve as a "starting point" to redefine the concept of hypertension, so that the guidelines reflect the systolic and diastolic isolation.