The key messages of this report are these in those older than age 50, systolic blood pressure BP of greater than 140 mm Hg is a more important cardiovascular disease CVD risk factor than diastolic BP; beginning at 115 75 mm Hg, CVD risk doubles for each increment of 20 10 mm Hg; those who are normotensive at 55 years of age will have a 90 lifetime risk of developing hypertension; prehypertensive individuals systolic BP 120 139 mm Hg or diastolic BP 80 89 mm Hg require health promoting lifestyle modifications to prevent the progressive rise in blood pressure and CVD; for uncomplicated hypertension, thiazide diuretic should be used in drug treatment for most, either alone or combined with drugs from other classes; this report delineates specific high risk conditions that are compelling indications for the use of other antihypertensive drug classes angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers, beta blockers, calcium channel blockers; two or more antihypertensive medications will be required to achieve goal BP ПЅ140 90 mm Hg, or ПЅ130 80 mm Hg for patients with diabetes and chronic kidney disease; for patients whose BP is more than 20 mm Hg above the systolic BP goal or more than 10 mm Hg above the diastolic BP goal, initiation of therapy using two agents, one of which usually will be a thiazide diuretic, should be considered; regardless of therapy or care, hypertension will be controlled only if patients are motivated to stay on their treatment plan does aspirin work like viagra