title: Changing hypertension treatment to reduce the overall cardiovascular risk.
abstract: The increasing tendency to treat hypertension has markedly reduced stroke mortality but has not significantly reduced the mortality from coronary heart disease. Many explanations for this failure have been proposed and the true reason may never be known. Nevertheless, a number of steps can be taken to improve the degrees of therapeutic protection against coronary heart disease including (1) a complete assessment of all alterable risk factors; (2) effective use of multiple non-drug therapies; (3) use of antihypertensive drugs that reduce other cardiovascular risk factors; and (4) a gradual reduction of blood pressure to levels that will preserve perfusion to vital organs.
authors.affiliation: University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas 75235-8899.
authors.forename: N M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Kaplan
mesh_terms: D000959:Antihypertensive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000187:drug effects; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000401:mortality*; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy*; D008019:Life Style; D012307:Risk Factors; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D015431:Weight Loss
chemical_list: D000959:Antihypertensive Agents