Word: nhlbi
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...create confusion. Then there are those rare studies, like last week's report on the best way to start treating high blood pressure, that could change the way doctors practice medicine for years to come. The study, which was sponsored by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), showed that mild diuretics, or "water pills," are not just the least expensive means of treating most cases of high blood pressure; they are the most effective as well...
This is not the sort of finding that will probably be reversed in a few years by more research. With more than 42,000 participants--including men, women, blacks and whites--the NHLBI investigation is the largest ever conducted in the study of high blood pressure. The goal was to compare some of the newer antihypertension treatments--like ACE inhibitors and calcium channel blockers--with an older group of drugs called thiazide diuretics. Although each of these medications had been shown to lower blood pressure better than a placebo, they had never really been tested against one another. "When...
...Courtesy of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) >> Click here for additional information
...than the bottom one. That's a reversal of conventional wisdom, which dictated that the bottom figure, for diastolic pressure, was the more important indicator of blood pressure because it showed how hard the heart was working to refill itself with blood between pumps. With this new recommendation, the NHLBI focuses attention on systolic pressure - the top figure...
...sudden turnaround? Research has been piling up for years supporting the NHLBI's position, according to TIME medical contributor Dr. Ian Smith. "Systolic pressure can show what's happening throughout the circulatory system, rather than only within the heart itself." For example, Smith explains, a systolic reading not only shows the force the heart is required to exert in order to push blood past resistance points, it also measures the pressure generated within vessels to keep blood moving to different organs - which can pinpoint a patient's risk for stroke or general damage to blood vessels...