Hyderabad: As per the new guidelines announced by the American Heart Association, high blood pressure has been redefined as a reading of 130/80 mm Hg, down from 140/90. This is expected to double the number of patients classified as hypertensive. People with a reading of 130/80 mm Hg will be alerted to the fact that they have the potential to become hypertensive so that that may make modifications in their lifestyles to ensure that they do not reach the 140/90 mm Hg reading. Dr M.S.S. Mukherjee, a senior cardiologist, said, “We see many patients with a 130/80 mm Hg level. The change in threshold will increase the incidence of hypertension to 40 per cent. While medications are not be started for such patients, they have to be started on a regime of diet control, exercise, and stress control.”
Doctors say that the lowering of the threshold has been implemented as a preventive measure, and not to benefit pharmaceutical companies. Dr Sunil Kapoor, a senior cardiologist, said, “The new recommendations are not for the benefit of pharmaceutical companies. Medication will not come into the picture for patients at 130/80 mm Hg. This is termed as stage 1 hypertension, where the role of the physician is preventive in nature. At this stage, proper counselling regarding lifestyle modification must be carried out.”
Dr Kapoor said the change had been made because of the increased incidence of young patients suffering from strokes or organ damage due to hypertension. “It has been decided to lower the threshold so that preventive measures may be implemented and quality of life may be improved,” he says. Stage 1 will be defined as a pre-hypertensive stage. Patients with 130/80 are often those who work under highly stressful conditions, have high salt intake and sedentary lifestyles, and are obese. The objective is to create awareness among such patients regarding the condition of their bodies at this stage. Dr Krutik Kukarni, a senior cardiologist, says, “Physicians at all levels are going to be instructed not to start treatment for patients at 130/80.”
