Changing healthy “norms” to sell more drugs – again!
How do drug companies get more healthy people taking drugs? Change the medical standard is one way, so millions more now have a disease that needs to be treated with drugs! It’s that simple – if we buy into it.
“Normal” range keeps changing to sell more drugs. Below are accepted medical standards for healthy blood pressure in varying years:
pre 1992 160/95 only if greater than this, did doctors recommend hypertensive drugs
1993 140/90 22 million more “disease” diagnoses = more drugs = more $
2018 130/80 30 million more “disease” diagnoses = more drugs = more $
2025: **New! Improved! (for Big Pharma pockets). Now they can initiate you into the life long North American Drug Ceremony if your blood pressure is higher than….. guess what? drum roll…. 120/80 !
Isn’t it amazing what research and lobbying can create with $ 400 million dollars?
UPDATE 2025:
In 2024 , Pharmaceutical lobbying spent $317.2 million.
Other ways that are used to increase drug sales were discussed in North American Health Advances?
In that article you can also learn a few simple natural aids,
which in addition to improved lifestyle, can help specifically with hypertension and generally help you avoid the North American Drug Ceremony.
Side effects are a main reason to try to avoid the N.A. drug ceremony. Here are just a few that are linked to use of blood pressure medications.
Most common side effects from hypertensive drugs from Government MedLine:
- Cough
- Diarrhea or constipation
- Dizziness or light headed
- Erection problems
- Feeling nervous
- Feeling tired, weak, drowsy, or a lack of energy
- Headache
- Nausea
Popular Blood Pressure Drugs Linked to Cancer Click link for full article; this is a very brief summary:
Some widely used blood pressure drugs may be associated with an increased risk of cancer, researchers found in a new study.
In a meta-analysis of nine published studies the blood pressure drugs called angiotensin-receptor blockers were associated with a statistically significant 8 percent increase in the relative risk of a new cancer, according to Dr. Ilke Sipahi and colleagues at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio.
The findings are “disturbing and provocative” and raise important safety issues both for doctors and regulators. Doctors should use the drugs with caution.
New Blood Pressure guidelines pay off for drug companies
In 2005, Dr. Saunders, chief of the division of medicine at Seattle’s Northwest Hospital & Medical Center said: “I am concerned that these studies that are telling people that it’s best to get down to 120 over 80 are all paid for by drug companies who are trying to sell pills. It makes me uncomfortable. I think the days of getting unbiased information are gone.”
Overnight epidemic: New blood pressure guidelines affect more than 30 million Americans who suddenly have hypertension
Goldstein Research analyst forecast the Hypertension Drugs Market size is set to reach USD 33.1 billion by 2024. Lowering the “normal” range will help keep them well on target.
*Political Lobbying
CNN reported that individual pharmaceuticals and health products sector spent $194.3 million on lobbying politicians in 2018. An additional $27.5 million was spent by lobbying group Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). While companies continue to log record profits and executives take home massive salaries and bonuses, the American people bear the cost.
UPDATES 2026: do you want MORE medical confirmation?
JUNE:
Great to see many other natural health practitioners, some of them even doctors, finally understanding how they have been brainwashed by so many years of drug salesman training. Thankfully, many are now coming out with the truth! https://www.midwesterndoctor.com/p/the-great-blood-pressure-scam
SEPTEMBER:
Yet, ANOTHER confirming article – this one by prestigious Brownstone Institute:
The magical “120” comes from the SPRINT trial, a particularly odious piece of work that tortured the data until it showed some benefit of a BP <120.
The SPRINT team was behind the 2017 guidelines recommending the 120/80 BP target, but you need to know these guidelines have been discredited for good reason. For instance, the process to produce them was riven with documented conflicts of interest. Again, Big Pharma’s interests are more than well-represented on the guideline production team and their participation automatically broadens the category of people who should take their drug.
The AAFP, American Association of Family Practice— the largest primary care organization in the US — refused to endorse that target. Why?
Because, in their words, there were “no significant benefit for all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, myocardial infarction, or renal events.” Let me translate: People don’t live longer or better because you guilt-tripped and drug-equipped them into getting their blood pressure down to 120/80.
There’s also another reason and that has to do with how unsafe it can be to push people’s blood pressure to ridiculously low targets. Not only does this drive people crazy (because many of them have to take two or three or four medications to lower their BP numbers) but it can also lead to falls, fractures, kidney injury, and so on, especially in older adults.
One study in JAMA Internal Medicine found that taking antihypertensive medications was associated with an increased risk of serious fall injuries. SPRINT itself showed nearly double the rate of serious adverse events possibly or definitely related to the antihypertensive drugs.
Like any two-edged sword, drugs to lower your blood pressure can also cause injury to you in ways you haven’t yet foreseen and which could make your life miserable.
THE REFERNCED ARTICLE ALSO EXPLAINS 3 OTHER COMMON TESTS TO CONVINCE PEOPLE TO BECOME LIFE LONG PRESCRIPTION ADDICTS:
- LDL for statins and other cholesterol lowering drugs:
Read also: Cholesterol drugs increase Alzheimers and Lowering Cholesterol Naturally
- HbA1C for “prediabetes & Metformin:
Read also: 3 Medical Challenges and Healthy Alternatives for Lungs, Diabetes and Vaccines and Diabetes and Metabolic Syndrome X
- BMI :
Read also Weight Loss 4 Pillars /Insulin Resistance
Reference: https://brownstone.org/articles/four-forms-of-numericide/
Always great to get confirmation on my research, this by MidWestern Doctor 6 years after my post.
I also have information on treating Cholesterol naturally, and safely, from 2014 here:
https://www.naturalpathremedies.com/blog/lowering-cholesterol-naturally/
Plus another on the dangers of Statins from 2017:
https://www.naturalpathremedies.com/blog/cholesterol-drugs-increase-alzheimers/
This doctor discusses why the medical profession is keeping the masses on drugs for all the wrong reasons.
It explains the Cholesterol Myth very well also.
https://open.substack.com/pub/amidwesterndoctor/p/unmasking-the-great-blood-pressure?r=ofnja&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
Another great article about the medical mis-representation concerning hypertension, salt and how they get us hooked on drugs:
https://www.midwesterndoctor.com/p/what-they-never-tell-us-about-salt?publication_id=748806&post_id=167153910&isFreemail=true&r=ofnja&triedRedirect=true