Jane Brody, the NY Times’ excellent reporter on health and fitness issues, provides this good overview of the current treatment options for high blood pressure, including this summary of the current drugs that are most commonly prescribed. My late father was one of the pioneers in the development of the first drugs and treatment protocols for hypertension.
As this earlier post noted, if FDR’s physicians had known in 1945 what doctors know today about the damaging effects of high blood pressure, those physicians would not have recommended that the seriously ailing FDR be allowed to go toe-to-toe with an avaricious Stalin at Yalta. Even a relatively short delay in the insight gained from scientific research can have a major impact on the course of mankind.
My 21 yo son, at age 19, was diagnosed with high blood pressure. I missed his symptoms when he was in high school-migranes and a racing heart that he complained about-passing it off to stress or sports. His blood pressure was always high at the pediatrician’s office. It was written off as “white coat syndrome”. This was an athletic normal weight kid who one would never suspect of having high blood. His BP was 160/110 when he was diagnosed and he was given a battery of tests to determine a cause. He had no other reasons for having high blood pressure except a family history of high BP in a paternal grandmother. He is now on two medications and is doing well. Fortunately we caught it early. I think it behooves parents to be alert to the possiblity that kids can have high blood pressure too. Many people think of it as primarily an overweight adult problem. As a dietitian I know better, just never thought it could happen to my kid. It is truly the silent disease.