Have you ever wondered how “120 over 80″ was chosen as “normal” blood pressure? A fascinating article by The Seattle Times explores blood pressure guidelines and the influence drug companies have. Here are some excerpts:

“…study concluded that the newer blood-pressure drugs are less safe, usually no more effective and far more expensive than decades-old drugs such as diuretics.
The study found that lisinopril and amlodipine, two of the drugs Godden was switched to, were no more effective than water pills in preventing deaths.
On the other hand, lisinopril was linked to 60 percent higher frequency of strokes. Amlodipine, which Godden currently takes, was linked to 38 percent more heart attacks and increased rates of suicide and depression.”

The full report can be found at http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/health/sick1.html
“And although the FDA has approved these drugs, it did not require their manufacturers to prove that the new drugs were more effective or safer than older blood-pressure drugs. Nor did the FDA require that the new drugs save more people from heart attacks or strokes than were lost to the drugs’ side effects.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 at 3:22 pm and is filed under Hypertension Studies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.