New Blood Pressure Guidelines Could Mean Millions More Americans Need Medication

Millions of Americans with high blood pressure that's never been treated may now need medication, under newly updated guidelines that redefine cardiovascular disease risk. The organization behind the updated guidelines was not specified in available reporting.

A new study found that nearly 23 million people are newly eligible for treatment under the updated guidelines. Of those, nearly 10 million had never been treated at all, meaning close to one in three Americans with untreated high blood pressure still isn't getting medication to control it.

The study, published in late July in the Journal of the American Heart Association, found that adults with diabetes would benefit most from treatment, since diabetes and high blood pressure often occur together. The study's authors say getting more people on medication could prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths over the next decade.