cover image Good News about Hgih Blood Pressure: How to Take Control of Hypertension---And Your Life

Good News about Hgih Blood Pressure: How to Take Control of Hypertension---And Your Life

Thomas Pickering. Simon & Schuster, $23 (336pp) ISBN 978-0-684-81396-7

Pickering, who is director of New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center's Hypertension Center, is skeptical of psychological approaches to treating hypertension and of most of alternative medicine approaches. The information offered here is conservative, mainstream and useful. Basic facts are presented clearly and summarized concisely at the end of each chapter. Since hypertension is linked to arterial disease, such topics as atherosclerosis and cholesterol levels are also covered. The connections between hypertension and strokes and heart attacks are explained, as are the effects on blood pressure of stress, obesity, smoking, caffeine, alcohol and the diet, especially the intake of salt and fat. Faulting the low-fat diet for lowering HDL, the ""good"" cholesterol, Pickering advocates the so-called Mediterranean diet, which is rich in olive oil. His explanations of various blood-pressure and cholesterol-lowering medications and his discussion of vitamins and over-the-counter remedies are straightforward and instructive. (Mar.)