Drug Treatment
You will probably be advised to have drug treatment for your high blood pressure if there is already evidence of damage to your arteries, brain, heart, eyes or kidneys or if you also have diabetes.
As a very rough guide, drug treatment is otherwise rarely justified unless your average blood pressure (averaged from at least three reading on separate days) is at least 160/100 mmHg.
While you don’t need to know exactly what these figures mean, you should know what they are in your own case, just as you do your own height and weight.
This threshold figure (plus or minus 5 mmHg either way) is based on evidence from large controlled trials in Britain, Australia, Scandinavia and the USA, which have shown worthwhile saving of life in many thousands of people.
The benefits of drug treatment are greatest in the people with the highest pressures, or those who already have evidence of organ damage.
Most of the benefits has been in reducing strokes, heart failure and kidney damage; the effects on coronary heart attacks have been much smaller (more important ways to prevent heart attacks are to stop smoking, maintain regular exercise and stick to diet low in saturated fats).
Drug Treatment
