Lowering blood pressure benefits older Australians

Dr Norman Swan on the ABC’s Health Report program, has reported that lowering the blood pressure of very old people can provide them with real health benefits.

He recently commented that while the risks of raised blood pressure are clear, as people age these risk multiples fall.

This, as well as worries about treatment complications in people aged over 80, has made some say the benefits are not there for very old people.

The counter argument is that when you are 80, the background risk of a heart attack or stroke is already high, so the step-up does not need to be as great, and therefore, the person could benefit from pressure reduction.

A trial of nearly 4,000 people aged 80 and over with a systolic pressure consistently 160mm or over, treated with medication, produced impressive results.

Fatal stroke risk was reduced by 40%, deaths from all causes by 20%, and heart failure by over 60%.

So, it sounds as though blood pressure treatment – at least with these medications – is worth having if you are over 80 and over 160mm Hg on the doctor’s machine on two occasions of a month apart.

For Reference:

New England Journal of Medicine,r: Kostis JB. Treating hypertension in the very old.

Visit:

http://content.nejm.org/2008;358:1958-1960