According to the Antihypertensive and Lipid-Lowering Treatment to Prevent Heart Attack Trial (ALLHAT) results, most effective treatment of high blood pressure seems to be diuretics of the thiazide variety that are also sometimes known as the water pills.
In the results of the study was published in this week’s The Journal of American Medical association. ALLHAT is considered one of the most important sets of trials conducted for hypertension by researchers of Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland Us and a few more centers. The trials were conducted in a cross-cultural milieu involving afro-Americans and other people.The study was done to test the effect of various classes of anti-hypertensive drugs and adverse effects like stroke, heart failure, cardiovascular disease etc.
The results of the study said that diuretics based treatment resulted in the lowest rate of heart failure due to hyper tension in both the groups of African-Americans and Americans.
Drug chlorthalidone had more pronounced effect on some conditions of the African-Americans. However for the initial treatment of hypertension and high blood pressure, diuretics still remain the choice of the medical practitioners.
