Healthy lifestyle no help in blood pressure

Ontario, February 11: Healthy lifestyle, which is reckoned as the first-line treatment to control high blood pressure, hardly benefits in the condition. A new research from Canada shows that only drugs hold the remedy to blood pressure.

People in initial stage of hypertension are advised to adopt appropriate lifestyle changes, even prior to starting any medication, but there is no substantial evidence to support its effectiveness beyond certain clinical trial conditions.

The researchers examined 2,551 people from Ontario, aged 20 to 79. Every fifth person among the participants suffered from hypertension. Of these, 41 percent adapted new habits in terms of eating, exercising, and using lesser medication. Another 42 percent relied on drugs alone.

The proceedings of the research showed that 85 percent of the drugs-only group had their blood pressure controlled as opposed to 78 percent of those who adopted lifestyle changes plus medication.

Dr. George J. Fodor of the University of Ottawa Heart Institute in Ontario claims that lifestyle change is not effective in lowering blood pressure. He asserts, “Whether we like it or not, the only thing which we can definitely offer which really works is drug treatment.”

“When reflecting on clinical guidelines that recommend lifestyle measures for BP management, the fact that nondrug interventions are neither cheap nor necessarily harmless is ignored,” say Fodor and his colleagues.

He urges that people should not give up medication while making lifestyle changes, as drugs are the proven method to lower blood pressure. Relying just on lifestyle change, will only delay hypertension treatment, and that even a short delay can be enough to cause heart stroke or heart attack sometimes.

“The harm comes from the fact that there is a long delay in embarking on something which is the only proven method of reducing blood pressure,” he said.

Fodor also cautioned those who go for processed food with lesser salt to control blood pressure, as there are shocking levels of sodium in those foods.

Instead of pushing people into vague lifestyle changes, public health concerns should strictly direct food industry to control sodium level in the food items, he concluded.