The rationale behind this that Doctors felt that the adverse side effects of the medication used at the time would possibly be of more danger to the patient than the high blood pressure readings.

Times have changed however and this line of thinking is no longer in use. Both of the above perceptions relating to the danger of the side effects and the mild nature of the blood pressure readings have lead to the discontinuance of this practice.

Recent research has firmly established the value of treating “stage 1 Hypertension” (a reading of between 140/90 – 159/99 Hg) with medication if necessary. It is now also considered prudent to treat patients who also suffer from Diabetes and High Blood Pressure if their readings are as low as 130/80 Hg. The sensitivity of medication nowadays is such that blood pressure levels can be controlled with much lower dosages meaning that the danger of side effects can also be reduced.

There has never been a greater variety of medication for High Blood Pressure available to Doctors from which to choose. These “antihypertensive drugs” also include many types of medication where there is a combination of several different types of drug. The newer types of medication quite often have a different chemical makeup and structure compared to the older ones but quite often produce nearly identical effects on the human body.

The range and sophistication of medication is such now that Doctors can produce care plans and treatment programmes tailored to the individual patient and in most cases prescribe medication that have little or minimal side effect to the patient and protect against possible further complications down the line.

On of the most important aspects of where treatment differs nowadays is that Doctors can quite possibly provide one single course of medication that can treat conditions like Hypertension and accompanying medical problems like congestive Heart Failure.

The generally accepted initial approach to Hypertension Treatment nowadays is to start slow & low and then build gradually where possible gradually increasing the dosage of the medicine prescribed until the blood pressure level sinks to a normal level. If this is not shown to work or causes troublesome side effects then a wide number of replacement medications are available for use.

The presently accepted course of treatment for Stage 1 Hypertension is to start with one drug and add a second if the blood pressure reading does not respond or decrease to normal levels. The target levels here are 140/90 Hg. For those with diabetes or chronic kidney disease then the ideal targets are reduced to 130/80 Hg. For “Stage 2 Hypertension” (the old levels of conventional High Blood Pressure) then the accepted treatment programme is to start with at least 2 drugs. Again if the response to this is not within an acceptable timeframe then the introduction of a third drug may occur.

Just when you think that Hypertension can be controlled with purely medication. There is a marked improvement to all of these programmes when the medication is accompanied by the introduction and implementation of lifestyle changes such as a well balanced diet, reduction in the consumption of alcohol, increased exercise and a complete cessation of smoking.

‘Nuff said really.

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It is a shocking statistic that apparently nearly one in five people in the United States of America have High Blood Pressure. The sad final part to this statistic is that nearly one third of the twenty percent are ignorant of the fact!

This is one of those situation where it almost certainly better to know ones fate thereby being able to do something about it, a fact that you cannot achieve if you remain in the dark as to your condition.

Given now the enormity of the problem facing Society, what can be done about it?

Back to our perfect world again and all we would have to do would be to lose some weight, eat our guaranteed four to five portions of freshly provided fruit and vegetables, cut down our consumption of alcohol and stop smoking! I had forgotten about the last and possibly most important factor of the entire scenario and that is to get more exercise!

Boy we would be so fit, we would hardly recognise ourselves.

However back to reality and we all know that though the above is all desirable (and actually achievable if we all were to try hard enough) the likelihood is that somewhere along the way the “wheels would come off” from our freshly created “Health and Lifestyle Chariot” and we would stumble somewhere.

Success by “yard is hard but it is a cinch by the inch” or so they say and the same goes with effective High Blood Pressure Treatment. If we start off with looking at our weight we can soon see that there are certain things we can achieve that are well within our own control. According to the May 2003 Report by the Joint National Committee (JNC) in the USA it is possible to reduce your Systolic Pressure reading by as much as 5-20 mm Hg for every 22 pounds you lose. Lets not be too ambitious at times with our weight loss targets but a loss of as much as 10 pounds can reduce your blood pressure and start to contribute to our well being.

We have mentioned the exercise factor before and you would not believe how important it actually is to your well being. They have almost run out of paper (mild exaggeration here for dramatic effect) printing various report after report highlighting the connection between exercise and effective lowering of High Blood Pressure.

Try and see if you can manage approximately 30 minutes of exercise a day every day if possible. Yes you can gain more benefit if you exercise more but as I mentioned before, lets take this one step at a time.

The main thing to remember here is that if the exercise is not enjoyable then you will not want to do it for any great length of time.

Notice in this article that I have made absolutely no mention of medication for High Blood Pressure. Of course in certain cases it is necessary and in most cases essential as part of the overall mix of treatment options but without you doing anything about the weight loss, diet and lifestyle change, alcohol and tobacco reduction, you might as well not bother with the drugs as all they will do is prolong the inevitable.

High Blood Pressure is known as the “silent killer” for a great many reasons but unlike other so called “silent killers”, with this one you can actually do an awful lot to prevent it taking over and ruining your life!

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