Open Thread

“Why, it might be argued, should anyone think it is anything but inevitable that the preeminent schools of a capitalist society produce professionals to serve the societies preeminent capitalists?” –Calvin Trillin

“For every complicated problem there is a solution that is simple, direct, understandable, and wrong” — H. L. Mencken

“The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living.” –Karl Marx
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According to the experts normal blood pressure is under 120/80. If it is higher than 130/80 you’ll need to take some expensive pharma drugs or else…

The concept that high blood pressure causes increased mortality was adopted after the Framingham Heart study, which is the most widely cited study used.
When professional mathematicians looked at this large 18 year long study they concluded:
“In fact, these data actually statistically rejected”
“the paradigm MUST be false”
“a universal cut point at a fixed pressure, in particular at 140 mmHg, has no justification”
“no benefit in reducing pressure from 160 mmHg”
Furthermore they noted that:
“no randomized trial has ever demonstrated any reduction of the risk of either overall or cardiovascular death by reducing systolic blood pressure” (when it was 160mmHg or lower)

https://www.math.ucla.edu/~scp/publications/EHJ.pdf
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A year long study from China looked at blood pressure and all cause mortality in patients with atrial fibrillation.
Mortality rates were 1.9 and 1.6 times higher in those with blood pressure under 110/70mmHg
As figure 2 shows those with low blood pressure had the highest death rates. The highest blood pressure group had the lowest mortality rates.
https://mednexus.org/doi/10.1097/CM9.0000000000002627
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Table 2 shows blood pressure drugs were associated with an increased risk of:
hospitlization/death from falls 2.19 and 1.23
hypotension 2.43 and 1.32
kidney injury 2.92 and 1.44
syncope 2 and 1.2
Fracture 1.45 and .99
electrolyte abnormalities 2.64 and 1.45
gout 1.99 and 1.35

First number is the unadjusted rate and second number is the rate using the authors adjustments.

https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1004223

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“Patients in a pragmatic trial were surveyed at baseline to identify and characterize 6 potential BP medication side effect symptoms”
Table 2 shows the percentage of people having big or very big problems with each side effect.
18% for tiredness
7.5% for dizziness
10% for leg swelling
7% for cough
12% for frequent urination
9% sexual dysfunction

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40578923/
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“Your worst sin is that you have destroyed and betrayed yourself for nothing.” ― Fyodor Dostoevsky

“Hegel remarks somewhere that all great, world-historical facts and personages occur, as it were, twice. He has forgotten to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.” -Karl Marx