What Do Lower Blood Pressure Guidelines Mean for You? - Page 2

How to lower blood pressure

To get there, make those “lifestyle changes,” all of which are good for you even if you don’t have high blood pressure. You can lower your risk by losing weight if you’re too heavy, eating healthily, exercising regularly, managing stress, limiting alcohol, and cutting out cigarettes. Have you heard that before?

Only about a fifth of the people newly defined as “stage 1” will need medication, says George Philippides, MD, immediate past president of the northeastern division of the American Heart Association. “Shaking the public up was somewhat purposeful because recent trials — actually many trials, but certainly some recently — have highlighted the fact that what we used to consider normal blood pressure really is not normal, and that even mild elevation is associated with higher risk of certain things like heart attack and stroke.”

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