Fourth paragraph in:
Further down:
“An important cornerstone of these new guidelines is a strong emphasis on lifestyle changes as the first line of therapy. There is an opportunity to reduce risk without necessarily imposing medications,” said Richard Chazal, the immediate past president of the American College of Cardiology.
A revision of hypertension guidelines with an eye towards encouraging better early lifestyle intervention seems like a pretty solid idea to me. I'm not seeing the drive towards greater prescription of antihypertensives that you are here. Frankly, with the amount of deaths from cardiovascular problems in this country (not to mention the preventable load on the healthcare system they create), giving cardiologists and general practitioners more leeway to tackle hypertension sounds like a great idea.