New information from ALLHAT, a major anti-hypertension study which included over 40,000 participants, recently released information showing that inexpensive diuretics outperformed expensive calcium blockers and ACE inhibitors over the course of the study when ability to lower blood pressure was not viewed as the only endpoint, but factors such as preventing stroke, heart failure and overall cardiovascular disease.

Information collected 13 years after the beginning of the ALLHAT trial revealed that, compared to those on a diuretic, patients in the ACE inhibitor group had a 20 percent higher death rate from stroke, and participants who were in the calcium channel blocker group had a 12 percent higher rate of hospitalization and death because of heart failure.

The study recommends that diuretics should be tried first by hypertensives as a means to lower blood pressure.

For more information visit the page titled “New Findings About Drugs to Lower High Blood Pressure and Cholesterol” which can be found at http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/allhat/facts.htm.
Also, http://consumer.healthday.com/Article.asp?AID=641986.