Blood Pressure Study: Control Without Drugs

A study of people with high blood pressure found that half had normal pressure levels more than a year after being taken off medication, and the percentage was higher among those who lost weight or cut down on salt, researcher say.

Half the 496 patients in the study at the University of Mississippi Medical Center were asked to stop taking medications that had been used to control their high blood pressure for about five years, said a report in Friday’s Journal of the American Medical Assn.

Then, the group that quit taking medication was further divided into those who went on weight-loss programs or ingested less sodium, and those who did neither.

After 56 weeks, 50% of the patients who had discontinued medication had normal blood pressure, the researchers reported.

The patients who changed their diets--either to lose weight or to reduce sodium--were two to three times more likely to succeed than the others, said the researchers, led by Dr. Herbert G. Langford of the Jackson, Miss., center.

“The clearest and most consistent results obtained in this program were in the weight-reduction persons,” who lost an average of 10 pounds, the study said.

The study found that the highest success rate--78%--was among people of normal weight with mild high blood pressure who cut down on sodium, doctors said.

Next most successful--72%--were overweight patients with mild high blood pressure who lost weight, the researchers said.

An accompanying editorial in the journal said non-drug therapy was a worthwhile goal, but it cautioned that success rates may have been overestimated since the patients were selectively chosen for the study and their blood pressure had been controlled for a long time.