{"id":133030,"date":"2017-11-21T21:52:15","date_gmt":"2017-11-22T02:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=133030"},"modified":"2017-11-21T21:52:15","modified_gmt":"2017-11-22T02:52:15","slug":"doh-open-to-adopting-us-lower-standard-for-hypertension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/11\/21\/doh-open-to-adopting-us-lower-standard-for-hypertension\/","title":{"rendered":"DOH open to adopting US’ lower standard for hypertension"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"FILE:<\/a>
FILE: Health Secretary Dr. Francisco Duque III (Photo: Department of Health (Philippines)\/Facebook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA \u2014<\/strong>\u00a0The Department of Health (DOH) is open to the possibility of adopting locally the lower level of high blood pressure that was set by the United States.<\/p>\n

“Nothing wrong with it,” said DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III, when asked about the recent BP adjustment in the US. “It’s okay. Nothing wrong with being a bit more conservative when it comes to certain standards.”<\/p>\n

Duque, however, said his department is inclined to first consult local experts, such as the Philippine Heart Association, to discuss the matter and come up with a final position.<\/p>\n

“We’ll be coordinating with our own professional societies, so that we can come up with our official position, whether we follow these new guidelines from the US or not,” he said.<\/p>\n

On a personal note, though, Duque said he believes the amended US guidelines would be beneficial to those bordering on being hypertensive.<\/p>\n

“Ultimately, lowering the high blood pressure level to 130 over 80 will be for the benefit of the people,” said the health chief.<\/p>\n

He also reminded that there are also a lot of healthy lifestyle interventions that can be done to prevent hypertension.<\/p>\n

The American Heart Association, the American College of Cardiology, and nine other groups redefined high blood pressure as a reading of 130 over 80, down from 140 over 90.<\/p>\n

The move comes after the medical experts recognized that blood pressures that were previously seen as normal or so-called pre-hypertensive actually place patients at significant risk for heart disease, death, and disability.\u00a0(PNA)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA \u2014\u00a0The Department of Health (DOH) is open to the possibility of adopting locally the lower level of high blood …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":130383,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[34464,19656,34463],"class_list":["post-133030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-doh-secretary-francisco-duque-iii","tag-hypertension","tag-us-lower-standard","mauthors-leilani-junio","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}