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Episode details

Radio 4,02 Feb 2016,28 mins

Blood pressure, Palm oil

Inside Health

Available for over a year

How low should you go when treating blood pressure? Mark Porter talks to the author of landmark study that was stopped early because the benefits of aggressive treatment were so convincing. This looks set to change the management of high blood pressure and millions more people in the UK will be taking extra medication. Dr Margaret McCartney debates the issues with Professor Tony Heagerty. Imagine if your high blood pressure could be cured by an operation that meant no pills at all? That's possible if it's due to a condition called Conn's syndrome, now thought to be much more common than previously thought. Mark Porter hears from leading specialist, Professor Morris Brown, plus a school teacher who spent 10 years on pills before being diagnosed and is now cured. And an Inside Health listener asks: why is palm oil in everything?

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