Hypertension Heresy: Are We Overtreating High Blood Pressure? - The People's Pharmacy Until August 15, 2012, if you asked almost any American physician whether someone with a blood pressure reading of 145/95 should be treated with medication, the answer would have been a resounding yes! Medical students and residents are taught that hypertension increases the risk of heart attacks, strokes and early death. Physicians have come to believe that aggressive treatment of patients with high blood pressure will lead to better outcomes. Everything changed on August 15, 2012, when the Cochrane Collaboration published its analysis: "Benefits of antihypertensive drugs for mild hypertension are unclear." The Cochrane Collaboration represents the highest level of scientific scrutiny of available studies. The experts who analyze the data are independent and objective and have come to be regarded as the ultimate authority on the medical interventions they evaluate. As far as we can ...
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