--- title: High Blood Pressure Should Be Lowered Even More, Study Finds description: Lowering blood pressure more could further reduce risk of heart attacks canonical: https://time.com/4031251/high-blood-pressure-treatment-study/ author: Victor Luckerson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-11T16:11:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:57:51.176Z article:section: Health og:title: High Blood Pressure Treatment Should Be More Aggressive, Study Finds og:description: Lowering blood pressure more could further reduce risk of heart attacks og:url: https://time.com/4031251/high-blood-pressure-treatment-study/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2f91026b23dc36e8/6988634a5f570f0e15b1d54e/blood-pressure.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4890 og:image:height: 2751 og:image:alt: Blood Pressure og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: High Blood Pressure Treatment Should Be More Aggressive, Study Finds twitter:description: Lowering blood pressure more could further reduce risk of heart attacks twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2f91026b23dc36e8/6988634a5f570f0e15b1d54e/blood-pressure.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # High Blood Pressure Treatment Should Be More Aggressive, Study Finds > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: New York City's Latest Food Battle: Salt [Watch (HLS stream): New York City's Latest Food Battle: Salt](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/IdPoU7xh.m3u8) (2:00)  _Published 2015-06-10. The New York City health department is expected to propose that restaurants label high sodium dishes on menus._ by [Victor Luckerson](https://time.com/author/victor-luckerson/) ## Victor Luckerson Sep 11, 2015 4:11 PM UTC  Sphygmomanometer, blood pressure gauge Sphygmomanometer, blood pressure gauge Getty Images by [Victor Luckerson](https://time.com/author/victor-luckerson/) ## Victor Luckerson Sep 11, 2015 4:11 PM UTC People who suffer from high blood pressure should be attempting to lower their blood pressure well below current benchmarks, according to [a new study](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/12/health/blood-pressure-study.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news). The study by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute found that patients who reached a systolic blood pressure below 120 saw their risk of heart attacks and strokes lowered by a third, while their risk of death was lowered by about one-fourth. Currently people with high blood pressure typically take drugs to lower their systolic blood pressure to 140, or 150 for people over 60\. The institute announced the results Friday, even though the study wasn’t scheduled to be published until 2017, because the data is of such importance to public health. Blood pressure experts expect guidelines to be changed due to the study, leading people to take medication that will push their blood pressure even lower. Some worry that increased use of blood pressure medicine could cause additional worrisome side effects. \[[_NYT_](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/12/health/blood-pressure-study.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4031251/high-blood-pressure-treatment-study/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4031251/high-blood-pressure-treatment-study/"},"headline":"High Blood Pressure Treatment Should Be More Aggressive, Study Finds","datePublished":"2015-09-11T16:11:24.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:57:51.176Z","description":"Lowering blood pressure more could further reduce risk of heart attacks","url":"https://time.com/4031251/high-blood-pressure-treatment-study/","keywords":["Public Health","Heart Disease","Blood Pressure","Stroke","hypertension","high blood pressure","heart health"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2f91026b23dc36e8/6988634a5f570f0e15b1d54e/blood-pressure.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Victor Luckerson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/victor-luckerson/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2f91026b23dc36e8/6988634a5f570f0e15b1d54e/blood-pressure.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Blood Pressure","caption":"Blood Pressure","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/public-health/","name":"Public Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4031251/high-blood-pressure-treatment-study/","name":"High Blood Pressure Treatment Should Be More Aggressive, Study Finds"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"New York City's Latest Food Battle: Salt","description":"The New York City health department is expected to propose that restaurants label high sodium dishes on menus.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/IdPoU7xh/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-06-10T14:16:39.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/IdPoU7xh.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4031251/high-blood-pressure-treatment-study/","duration":"PT2M","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4031251/high-blood-pressure-treatment-study/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```