The blood pressure trap - medicine keeps moving the goalposts - Science, Public Health Policy and the Law

The bar for treating high blood pressure has shifted — again.

Last August, the American Heart Association (AHA) and American College of Cardiology (ACC) quietly revised their guidelines.

The numbers haven’t changed since 2017, but the rules for treatment have.

Doctors are now encouraged to start medication earlier — even in people considered lower risk — a move that could push millions more onto lifelong treatment.

It’s part of a familiar pattern in medicine: the steady expansion of who counts as “unwell.”

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