People Over 55 Should be Given BP Drugs To Cut Heart Attack, Stroke Risk

Individuals aged 55 and above should be given blood pressure lowering drugs- even if their reading is normal, a London-based expert says.

Epidemiology expert Professor Malcolm Law's research found the medication cut the risk of heart attacks and strokes regardless of a person's blood pressure.

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High blood pressure or hypertension is a chronic condition, which usually lasts a lifetime once it is developed.

Drugs such as beta blockers and ACE inhibitors reduce the chance of heart attacks by around a quarter and stroke by around a third, the British Medical Journal reports.

To reach the conclusion, research team from the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine at Barts and The London School of Medicine analysed the findings of 147 blood pressure trials published between 1966 and 2007, involving 464,000 people.

The results show that using any one of the main classes of blood pressure lowering drugs at standard dose reduced fatal and non-fatal heart attacks by about a quarter and stroke by about a third. Heart failure was also reduced by about a quarter.

Animation of heart attack symptoms
Heart attack can cause symptoms such as Chest pain or discomfort, Shortness of breath and pain in neck, back, arm, or shoulder and is due to blockage of blood supply to the heart muscles

The reductions in disease were similar in people with and without clinical cardiovascular disease and regardless of blood pressure before treatment.

All the classes of blood pressure lowering drugs had a similar effect for a given reduction in blood pressure that was accurately predicted from epidemiological studies of blood pressure and subsequent disease with two exceptions-an extra protective effect of beta-blockers given shortly after a heart attack and a small additional effect of calcium channel blockers in preventing stroke.

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Stroke can cause permanent disability and it is important to recognize its early warning signs to stop its progress. Early warning signs of stroke include sudden weakness of facial muscles.

Professor Malcolm Law said "The results show that blood pressure lowering drugs should be offered to anyone at sufficient risk to benefit from treatment, whatever their reason for being at risk."

However, the exact age range for being most at risk of heart attack and stroke could not be defined precisely from this study, which only looked at randomised trials in people aged 60.

Source-ANI
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