Every over-55 'needs blood pressure drugs'

Published on Tuesday 19 May 2009 22:07

EVERYONE aged 55 and over should be taking drugs to lower their blood pressure, even if their reading is normal, a report has said.

Publishing a review of almost 150 studies, Professor Malcolm Law said the drugs lowered the risk of heart attack, heart failure and stroke, regardless of somebody's current reading.

He and colleagues published their findings from the largest review yet of clinical trials involving blood pressure drugs in the British Medical Journal.

They found most types of drugs to treat blood pressure had similar effects, cutting the risk of heart attacks and heart failure by around a quarter and the risk of stroke by a third.

These figures were based on lowering systolic blood pressure by 10mm Hg or diastolic blood pressure by 5mm Hg. Systolic blood pressure is the pressure when the heart beats while pumping blood. Diastolic blood pressure is the pressure when the heart is at rest between beats.

Prof Law said: "Beyond a certain age, we're saying everyone would benefit from taking drugs that lower blood pressure.

"What we call 'normal' blood pressure is actually high, and what we call high blood pressure is actually higher."

Prof Law said everyone aged 55 and over should take the drugs and should not be worried by claims that the population at large is being "medicalised".

He said: "You could say that giving people the flu vaccine is medicalising the population."

Prof Law, who is professor of epidemiology at the Wolfson Institute at Barts and The London School of Medicine, analysed the findings of 147 blood pressure trials published between 1966 and 2007, involving 464,000 people.

Among those aged 65 living in England and Wales, the risk of having a heart attack in the next ten years is about 10 per cent for men and 5 per cent for women, they said. But taking blood pressure-lowering drugs could cut the number suffering heart attacks and strokes.

In an accompanying editorial, Richard McManus from the University of Birmingham and Jonathan Mant from the University of Cambridge backed the view that blood pressure drugs should be given out on the basis of risk, regardless of blood pressure readings.

They said the findings supported the idea of giving everyone over a certain age a "polypill" – a drug that would include a statin to lower cholesterol as well as treatment for blood pressure.

Mike Rich, executive director of charity the Blood Pressure Association, said:

"Prevention is better than cure, but there are other proven ways to prevent high blood pressure such as healthy eating and regular exercise, which have other health benefits too. There is a danger that these important lifestyle factors could be overlooked in favour of popping a pill."

Joanne Murphy, research liaison officer for The Stroke Association, said:

"Whilst blood pressure medication is one of the safest medications, they do have side effects and should only be described to people who are at significant risk of stroke."