Free Republic

For years, turning 65 with a blood pressure reading above 130 meant one thing: medication. A new analysis of the 2025 American Heart Association guidelines shows that this practice is changing, finding that roughly 10 percent of older adults previously flagged for treatment may no longer meet the criteria, a move experts say prevents overtreatment, but one that carries its own risks. The 2025 guidelines marked a significant departure from the 2017 AHA guidelines, which recommended treatment for all adults over 65 with blood pressure at or above 130/80 mmHg. The updated 2025 guidelines replace that blanket approach with one...

People who take all of their blood-pressure medication in one go at bedtime are better able to control their condition and have “a significantly lower risk of death or illness” caused by heart or blood vessel problems compared to those who take their anti-hypertensive medication in the morning, according to research published this month in the peer-reviewed European Heart Journal. The trial instructed 19,084 patients to take their pills on waking or at bedtime, and followed them for more than six years — during which time the patients’ ambulatory blood pressure was checked over 48 hours at least once a...

A large medication recall has expanded again - now to a global scale. Valsartan, a prescription medication commonly used to treat blood pressure issues and heart failure, is now under a worldwide recall. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says the drug contains a cancer causing chemical called N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA). This chemical is toxic to the liver and other organs. "The presence of NDMA was unexpected and is thought to be related to changes in the way the active substance was manufactured," the FDA said. snip...