Less pressure: New research suggests some blood pressure targets may be lower than needed.

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—Updated guidelines set in 2006 by the American Heart Association (AHA) changed the recommended blood pressure targets for people with high blood pressure, lowering the target levels considered "normal." But a new study just published in The Cochrane Library, a quarterly review of medical research, finds that the new goals don't reduce mortality any more so than sticking with past recommendations. Which may make it a little easier for people with high blood pressure to keep their numbers within the desired range.

THE DETAILS: In its latest guidelines, the AHA considered anyone with a blood pressure of 115 over 75 mm Hg to be normal; those numbers were revised downward from 120 over 80. Anyone with a blood pressure of 120 to 139 over 80 to 89 falls into a new classification of "prehypertensive," that is, at greater risk for stroke, heart attacks, or kidney problems. Anyone with a blood pressure of 140 over 90 has high blood pressure, a.k.a. hypertension. And those people are often encouraged to work at dropping their blood pressure back into the prehypertensive range, which can be difficult.

The Cochrane analysis included seven studies of over 22,000 people who were trying to achieve blood pressure targets below 140 over 90, which is generally recommended to patients with hypertension. However, in their review, they found that studies of people who achieved 135 over 80 didn't have any lower risk of death than people in the 140 over 90 range.