There were 10% MORE deaths in people with mild hypertension (140-159 / 90-99 mm Hg) who were taking blood pressure drugs during a median follow-up of 5.8 years (4.49% died vs 4.08%) than people of the same age and same blood pressure who were NOT taking blood pressure drugs according to a 2018 study.
This study suggests to me that blood pressure drugs INCREASE the risk of death in people with mild hypertension.
Data from a 2004 study of older women showed the same thing, that older women with hypertension, and my guess is that most of them had mild hypertension, were MORE likely to die from cardiovascular disease alone in 7 of 8 drug groups (data was only given for death from cardiovascular disease, but not given for total mortality) than women with hypertension who were NOT taking blood pressure drugs.
I believe that this is because mild hypertension is NOT a disease and does NOT increase your risk of death, so giving drugs to lower blood pressure cannot possibly lower your risk of death, and instead can only INCREASE your risk of death.
In 2000, Sidney Port, PhD, a statistician from UCLA, found that our beliefs about blood pressure, the idea that there is a linear relationship between blood pressure and the risk of death, that every little increase in blood pressure increases the risk of death, is WRONG.
Sid Port found that with blood pressure, there is a threshold effect, and only above a certain threshold, which depends on your age and your gender, does the risk of death increase.
Sid Port found that below this threshold, there is NO increased risk of death (except when blood pressure is too low).
Sid Port found that the threshold is very roughly similar to the old rule-of-thumb, that systolic pressure should not exceed 100 plus your age.
So if you are 50 it should not exceed 150.
If you are 60, it should not exceed 160.
If you are 70, it should not exceed 170.
(Sid Port’s calculations are somewhat different than this, but it is close enough, and this is the easiest way to remember it.)
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