|
|
 |
 |
| |
 Printable version |
Hypertension: risk factor or disease? |
Médecine. Volume 7, Number 3, 120-6, Mars 2011, Stratégies
|
 Résumé
Article gratuit
|
Author(s) : Pierre Gallois, Jean-Pierre Vallée, Yves Le Noc |
Summary : Apart from rare cases, the sole purpose of treating hypertension is to reduce the cardiovascular risk of patients with the least possible adverse effects.
Beyond a gain of 10 to 15 mmHg systolic BP, the addition of other drugs does not appear to improve cardiovascular risk reduction and can be harmful. Best can be the enemy of good.
The excessive sodium intake may explain much of the increased prevalence of hypertension, and greater cardiovascular risk. This falls under both the individual food education and the government action.
A lack of “certainty”, some pointers: in groups at risk, either because of comorbidities or age, it seems beneficial to obtain a blood pressure around 140/90, it is still not demonstrated that it is useful to go beyond. We must remain very cautious in the elderly.
The advices for a patient with hypertension are those of preventing the risk for cardiovascular overall, affecting all of our patients and not only those at moderate or high cardiovascular risk.
|
Keywords : aging, diet, sodium-restricted, guidelines, hypertension, patient compliance, quality of health care, risk factors |
|
