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Article: Drugs for high blood pressure which are best?
- Article from:
- HealthFacts
- Article date:
- April 1, 2005
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Center for Medical Consumers, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Drugs that lower high blood pressure are the cornerstone of preventive medicine. Clearly they have prevented many a heart attack or stroke, but it's getting harder and harder for doctors to know who should get what drug ... and who should not be treated at all. Every few years a committee of hypertension experts (often with strong ties to the pharmaceutical industry) lowers the threshold for the definition of normal hypertension, steadily expanding the pool of people who should be on drugs.
And every few years a study produces the bad news that a certain anti-hypertensive drug or drug combination kills more people than other drugs or drug combinations. Last ...