So Could Less Medication Be Better When Treating High Blood Pressure?

Online, March 21, 2011 (Newswire.com) - High Blood Pressure Insider continues to promote the benefits of a healthy lifestyle in preventing hypertension, rather than a lifetime of taking high blood pressure medication.

The side effects associated with high blood pressure medication can be devastating, but now a Canadian study has found that patients with high blood pressure are better off if they are treated with less medication.

So is less medication is better for high blood pressure?

Study leader Ross D. Feldman, a clinical scientist with at the University of Western Ontario, says that treating hypertension with low doses of single pill combinations, rather than multiple pills, is more effective.

Proper diagnosis and treatment of high blood pressure can cut risk of stroke by 40 percent and heart attack by 25 percent.

As part of his study 'Simplified Treatment Intervention to Control Hypertension (STITCH),' Feldman and his research team selected 2,104 patients (from their family doctors) with high blood pressure.

Researchers wanted to see if there are simpler ways to help patients (and their doctors) reduce their blood pressure to goal levels than by following national guidelines which can be complicated, a university statement said Thursday.

The study found that most recently-diagnosed patients were better served if their treatment started with a half tablet of a single pill combination drug (an ACE-inhibitor/diuretic or Angiotensin receptor blocker/diuretic combination) than the regular starting dose of a single drug, the statement added.

"The nature of hypertension management has changed. It is much more aggressive, and complex, leading to hundreds of recommendations on how to manage high blood pressure,'' Feldman was quoted as saying.

"This should be a call to hypertensive patients to go to their family physicians to be prescribed these single pill combinations. It makes both the patients' and doctors' lives easier,'' he said.

The study appears in the April edition of the journal Hypertension.

Through its online presence High Blood Pressure Insider encourages people to manage their high blood pressure through a healthy lifestyle and enjoy the many benefits of a healthy heart.

High blood pressure medication can only control your hypertension ... it can't fix your condition. Taking medication alone will never rid you of the problem, but will commit you to a lifetime of popping pills.

Always take care .... If you're currently taking blood pressure medications, then never consider stopping taking them without consulting your doctor first. The withdrawal reaction can also be life threatening.

If you would like to know more about how to control high blood pressure without taking medication, then visit High Blood Pressure Insider at http://highbloodpressureinsider.org