Changing hypertension treatment to reduce the overall cardiovascular risk

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.