Highlights
Guidelines for Preventing and Treating High Blood Pressure (Hypertension)
The American Heart Association’s 2006 guidelines recommend that people should:
- Maintain a healthy weight
- Exercise at least 30 minutes a day
- Reduce salt intake
- Increase potassium intake
- Limit alcohol consumption
- Choose a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and low-fat dairy foods. Avoid foods that are high in saturated fat, total fat, and cholesterol. The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet offers these healthy choices.
DASH Diet
Replacing some carbohydrates in the DASH diet with protein-rich foods from plant sources (nuts, seeds, soy) or monounsaturated fats (canola or olive oil) may help boost heart benefits, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Prehypertension
- Blood pressure readings of 120 - 139 (systolic) and 80 - 89 (diastolic) indicate prehypertension. Prehypertension increases the risk for developing hypertension and other serious heart complications.
- People with prehypertension are three times more likely to have a heart attack, and nearly twice as likely to develop coronary artery disease than people with normal blood pressure (systolic below 120 and diastolic below 80).
- Prehypertension is usually treated with lifestyle changes, but doctors are investigating drug treatment. A 2006 study in the New England Journal of Medicine suggested that candesartan (Atacand) may help prevent prehypertension from developing into high blood pressure.
Drug Research
- Newer blood pressure drugs (calcium channel blockers, ACE inhibitors) may work better than older types of drugs (diuretics, beta blockers), according to results from the European ASCOT trial. The American ALLHAT trial, however, found excellent results from thiazide diuretics.
- Beta-blockers may increase the risk of stroke and may not be the best choice for first-line treatment, according to a review in the Lancet.
