HYPERTENSION PRESSURE

Is lower better when it comes to blood pressure?

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1. Counselling Conundrum: a real question from a patient

2. Concise Conclusion: a straight-forward patient-friendly answer 

3. Quick Wrap-up 

Clearly, there are nuances that may not be captured in this format. The goal here is to provide you with helpful counselling tips which often draw from multiple sources or those which are not commonly accessed by busy healthcare providers serving the community.

Counselling Conundrum: "At what point should I worry about my blood pressure?"

Concise Conclusion: If you're noticing your blood pressure is above 130/90 (especially the first number), speak with your doctor. You're at risk of heart attack and stroke when your blood pressure is too high.

Quick Wrap-up: The new cutoff (previously 140/90) is 130/90 to diagnose hypertension. Keep in mind that in the elderly this can be more lax to reduce risk of falls etc., and systolic BP should be your priority. Using two lower dose meds of different classes vs maxing out 1 drug seems better tolerated and more effective.

Dive Deeper

1) https://www.cmaj.ca/content/197/20/E549

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