New Blood Pressure Guidelines Means 30 Million More People Can Stay Unconscious
Recently, something laughable happened. New guidelines issued by the American Heart Association have determined that the upper-level threshold called “high blood pressure” is now lower. 1 1. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/13/health/blood-pressure-treatment-guidelines.html ×
In other words, 30 million more people now have “high blood pressure.”
Unfortunately, anybody with an IQ greater than that of a slug knows exactly what that means – it likely means a few more million customers to go alongside the #1 pharmaceutical drug in the United States already. Lipitor. 2 2. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/13/health/blood-pressure-treatment-guidelines.html × This fuels the trifecta of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart-disease related pharmaceuticals.
But beyond the increase in pharmaceutical sales that will happen as these millions of Americans start getting “diagnosed” by their doctors, there’s an even greater risk.
The Greatest Risk of All – Millions More Unconscious People
The sad truth here, deeper than the obvious profit-bump for the pharma industry, is that 30 million more people won’t have to look themselves in the mirror and change their lives.
That’s millions of potential candidates, people who can get up, take their little pill, eat the same things, live the same way, do all the same routines, and pretend like their life is the same.
It isn’t.
But it makes it easy to seem it’s that way.
The Sad Truth of Never Looking in the Mirror
The sad truth is that when things aren’t going well, we have two responses in life.
When we get fat, we can stop getting on the scale, push it into the subconscious, and just get on with our lives as if nothing has changed at all.
When we start going into debt and overspending, we can stop checking our credit card balances and just do what we’ve always done.
When our relationship starts going sour, we can just continue to soldier on, drinking beer in front of the TV and not listening to our spouse.
Or we can decide to do the most painful, rewarding thing of all – look in the mirror.
Look at the truth.
Step back on the scale.
Check the bank balance.
Look at how bad the relationship has gotten.
Be brutally honest about where we are, and what things need changing, to clean up our life.
Worst Comes to Worst
Worst comes to worst, there will always be the blue pill there for you.
If the pain of being conscious is too much, if growth is scary, if looking yourself in the mirror, about the reality of your weight, or life, is too much.
That pill will always be there.
Which one will you choose?
Hi Alex. I have been following information about these new guidelines since they came out in November. I 100% agree with you that we need to look at lifestyle changes first since that is what has caused such an epidemic of high blood pressure and other diseases. However, I take issue with your statement that this means “30 million more customers for the #1 pharmaceutical drug in the United States already. Lipitor.”
First, the easy one – Liptor is the number one drug for lowering cholesterol. It has nothing to do with high blood pressure.
But more importantly, please take a closer look at the fourth paragraph of the article you have linked. It says that under the new guidelines the number of adults with high blood pressure will rise by 30 million, “but the number of people who are new candidates for drug treatment will rise only by an estimated 4.2 million people.”
If you look at this article from the American College of Cardiology (http://www.acc.org/latest-in-cardiology/articles/2017/11/08/11/47/mon-5pm-bp-guideline-aha-2017)
you will see that one of the changes to the guidelines is “Only prescribing medication for Stage I Hypertension if a patient has already had a cardiovascular event such as a heart attack or stroke, or is at high risk of heart attack or stroke based on age” or the presence of diabetes or kidney disease. (from the first in the second series of bullet points within the article)
My understanding of the new guidelines is that they are meant to bring a greater sense of urgency, an awareness and mindfulness of the problem. People need to act today, not tomorrow. And yes, that starts with lifestyle changes. If one waits until one’s blood pressure is higher to act, then medications may be your only option and it’s much better to be aware earlier and realize you need to get your exercise and eating in order.
I love reading your posts, Alex. But I really feel accuracy in the details is important for making an effective argument. And yes, today I think my IQ is a little greater than that of a slug. 🙂
Carmelita,
Thank you for this comment, will update the inaccuracies I have up above. I appreciate it.