Blood pressure pills could save 2,000 lives every year
POPPING pills to control blood pressure and cholesterol slashes the risk of heart disease by more than half, according to a study.
Fewer than one in three people keeps both blood pressure and cholesterol at healthy levels, according to US research published in the journal Circulation.
Lead researcher Dr Brent Egan, of the University of South Carolina, said: “We know more than enough to prevent 75 per cent of heart disease and stroke. But we’re not doing everything we could.”
Eight million people in Britain take statins for cholesterol but experts say that if five million more took them it would cut heart attacks and strokes by 10,000 a year, saving 2,000 lives.
The British Heart Foundation, said: “As many as five million people in the UK are walking around undiagnosed with high blood pressure.”