In fact, hypertension can be considered an early warning of problems developing in the cardiovascular or other organ systems. People with hypertension have a higher than normal risk for coronary heart disease and heart attacks, heart failure, stroke or transient ischemic attack, peripheral vascular disease, and kidney disease. In recent years, the long-term health risks of hypertension have become increasingly well defined. As a result, physicians have been encouraged to be extremely careful in their evaluation of people they suspect may have hypertension, and to treat the condition more aggressively. If you have hypertension your physician will likely advise you to attempt to make some lifestyle changes that can help lower your blood pressure.
Most people do eventually require drug therapy for high blood pressure.
There are a great many drugs available for hypertension. Many people are reluctant to take treatment for their hypertension because they feel just fine. Your physician will explain in greater detail just why and how lowering your blood pressure is so crucial to your long-term health, and why it s important to continue to take the medication prescribed for you. Chapter 35, Hypertension. In Duthie, Edmund H, ed.