Are drugs ever necessary to treat or control hypertension? The answer is “yes.” Someone with severe hypertension may require drug therapy to prevent an adverse outcome related to having high blood pressure, including a stroke or a heart attack.
But what levels of blood pressure need to be considered abnormal? That depends on who you are talking to.
If you are talking to most conventional doctors, they will tell you that a blood pressure greater than 120/80 mmHg is cause for concern and possibly requires the use of medication. I say this approach is ludicrous.
There is no doubt that blood pressure rises as one ages. The average blood pressure of a 20- to 34-year-old female is 117/75 mmHg and for a 65-year-old female, it is 153/85 mmHg.
For 20- to 34-year-old men, the average blood pressure is 126/79 mmHg, and for 65-year-old men, the average blood pressure is 149/84 mmHg.
These blood pressures would coincide exactly with what I was taught in medical school: Add 90 to your age for normal systolic blood pressure. In fact, only 25 percent of adult males have a supposedly “ideal” blood pressure of 120/80 mmHg.
Just because blood pressure rises as people age does not mean that one needs drugs to counteract it. Aging is not a disease; it is a normal process of life.
Does elevated blood pressure cause death? The answer is “yes.” It is true that, as the blood pressure increases, there is an increasing all-cause death rate.
However, remember what I said before: As we age, blood pressure normally rises. Unfortunately, as we age, the death rate normally rises as well.
To make the statement that rising blood pressure is responsible for an increasing rate of death is silly. Apparently, though, it’s not a silly enough idea to stop Big Pharma from trying to exploit it.
By convincing doctors and patients that the normal elevation of blood pressure is responsible for an increased death rate, the drug cartel has been able to make untold amounts of money. It also created a whole medical industry to diagnose and treat hypertension wrongly.
Further evaluation of blood pressure studies found that there is an increased death rate only for people with blood pressures above the 80th percentile for a patient’s age. These are the kinds of people who may benefit from antihypertensive therapies.
So, what level blood pressure rises to the threshold of needing drugs to treat it? (All figures are for systolic blood pressure.)
• Men ages 45 to 54: 159 mmHg
• Men 55 to 64: 173 mmHg
• Men 65 to 74: 184 mmHg
• Women 45 to 54: 165 mmHg
• Women 55 to 64: 183 mmHG
• Women 65 to 74: 90mmHg
Joel Kaufman, author of Malignant Medical Myths, wrote, “When allowance for age is made . . . it is probable that only 55 percent of men should be treated for hypertension.”
Hypertension in conventional medicine is usually treated as a disease requiring the use of lifelong antihypertensive medications. Rarely is there a search for a cause of why the blood pressure is elevated in an individual.
In medical school we were taught to take a blood pressure and, if the pressure was elevated (mildly or moderately), rarely was any investigation undertaken to ascertain the reason.
Instead, we were taught to tell patients that they had a disease — hypertension — and that they needed medication. In fact, more than 95 percent of all cases are treated as “primary” hypertension — in other words, it is assumed that there is no known cause.
I have news for you: In most of these cases, the cause is known. Most primary cases of hypertension are caused by misinformation from Big Pharma and a poor decision by one’s physician.
Hypertension is a sign that something is wrong in the body. The body is not stupid. It is increasing the blood pressure for a reason.
What are some of the reasons for increasing the blood pressure? If one is overweight, the body will have to pump blood harder to various organs and tissues because there is more fat with which to contend. Fat surrounds organs and tissues and can cause increased vascular resistance.
To overcome this resistance, the body increases blood flow to preserve perfusion to the tissues, which is simply the movement of blood to where it is needed. Above all, the body wants to preserve perfusion in order to oxygenate and bring nutrients to the organs and tissues.
Other conditions known to cause elevated blood pressure include anemia, fever, heart-valve problems, hyper- or hypothyroidism, elevated iron levels, and atherosclerosis. In each of these conditions, the body is trying to preserve perfusion.
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