High blood pressure, or hypertension, is a big problem. It’s a tricky condition because you might not feel sick, but it can lead to serious issues like heart attacks or strokes.
It’s particularly common in older people. For many, medications help to keep their blood pressure in check.
But there’s always room for improvement, and every new discovery could mean better health for millions.
The Study in Question
A group of researchers decided to take a closer look at how different kinds of high blood pressure treatments work.
Specifically, they wanted to find out if a more intense treatment could help prevent strokes in older people.
To find out, they went through the results of nine different studies, called randomized clinical trials. These studies involved a total of 38,779 people.
On average, these people were between 66 and 84 years old. The studies followed up with these people for between 2.0 to 5.8 years to see what happened over time.
What the Analysis Found
So, what did the researchers discover? They found out that more intensive blood pressure treatment can actually prevent strokes.
They calculated that it took about 1.7 years to stop one stroke from happening in 200 older persons with this treatment.
But, the time it took for the treatment to work varied.
For older adults whose initial systolic blood pressure (the top number when you get your blood pressure checked) was less than 150 mmHg, the treatment took more than 1.7 years to prevent a stroke.
On the other hand, for those whose initial systolic blood pressure was more than 190 mmHg, the treatment worked faster – it took less than 1.7 years to prevent a stroke.
Guidelines and Treatment Considerations
You might be wondering why this matters. Well, the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association have guidelines.
These guidelines say doctors should talk about the risks and benefits of high blood pressure treatment with older adults.
But there’s not enough information about how long it takes for blood pressure treatment to start working. That’s what these researchers were trying to find out.
Vanessa S. Ho, MS, from California Northstate University College of Medicine, who led the research, explained that this is really important.
Older adults who don’t have many years left to live need to know how long it will take for a treatment to work. After all, they might not want to take extra medication if it’s not going to help them right away.
Wrapping Up
So, what’s the main takeaway from all this? If you’re an older adult with high blood pressure, a more intensive treatment might help prevent a stroke, and it could work in less than two years.
This is great news and could help many people live longer, healthier lives. Plus, this study fills in some important information gaps and can help doctors and patients make the best choices about treatment.
If you care about blood pressure, please read studies that common food may help lower risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, and this simple exercise may lower blood pressure more effectively.
For more information about heart health, please see recent studies about diabetes drug that could help treat most people with heart failure, and results showing this food ingredient may strongly increase heart disease death risk.
The study was published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
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