US guidelines say blood pressure of 120/80 mm Hg is not “normal”

New US guidelines on hypertension take a stronger approach, reclassifying “high normal” blood pressure as “pre-hypertension” and calling for aggressive treatment, firstly by changing lifestyle and then with drugs.

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health, 39 professional, public, and voluntary agencies, and seven federal agencies issued the seventh report of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure (JNC 7).

The report was presented at the American Society of Hypertension meeting in New York last week and is being published in the Journal of the American Medical Association …