No need to keep taking the medicine

US doctors have successfully managed to take 40% of their elderly hypertensive patients off drug treatment by counselling them to make changes in lifestyle.

The non-pharmacologic interventions in the elderly (TONE) study found that structured counselling about losing weight and reducing sodium intake safely reduced the need for antihypertensive treatment in many older patients. The results of the three year randomised controlled trial were presented at the meeting of the American Heart Association in New Orleans last week.

The researchers recruited 975 patients aged between 60 and 80 who were already …