Johns Hopkins Health Alert Battling Blood Pressure: How Low
Should You Go? Many people with diabetes are unaware of the
number one threat to their health: cardiovascular disease. In
fact, one survey found that 68% of people with diabetes did not
consider cardiovascular disease as a serious potential
complication, focusing instead on vision, nerve, and kidney
disease. A recent study looks at cardiovascular disease, blood
pressure, and diabetes … Experts recommend that people with
diabetes lower blood pressure to below 130/80 mm Hg to reduce
the risk of cardiovascular disease. But will lowering blood
pressure even more reduce the risk further? To find out,
researchers compared the progression of atherosclerosis (the
buildup of plaques in the arteries) in 499 American Indians with
diabetes who were treated to either: standard targets (systolic
blood pressure less than 130 mm Hg; LDL cholesterol below 100
mg/dL), or 2) more stringent targets (systolic blood pressure
below 115 mm Hg; LDL cholesterol less than 70 m