Dr. Sanjay Gupta

And if medications are needed, so be it, but not at the cost of that person's quality of life.

That is, I think, really important.

Well, if you go by the guidance, 140 over 90 is sort of the kind of value.

If it's sustained and it's elevated beyond that on repeated measurements, then it's probably what is considered high.

Of course, different places have different criteria.

So if you go to the Americans, they have lower values, you know.

And what is very interesting and quite absurd about the whole thing is if you have a bunch of American doctors there and you have a bunch of European doctors and you say, what is high blood pressure?

The two groups give different values.

The Americans will say it's 130 and the Europeans will say 140.

And I say, well, OK, well, why don't you just give your

hypertensive patients in America, one-way ticket to Europe, and you've cured their condition.

That is ridiculous.

That is how absurd the world has become.

You know, this is our fixation on numbers.

That is, to my mind, not the way to practice good individualized medicine.

You want to see that person

And you want to address them holistically rather than just targeting one set of numbers.

And interestingly, those sets of numbers and those guidelines change every so often anyway.

No, I'm saying the first thing is don't worry about it because worrying is only going to increase your blood pressure.

Worrying doesn't stop anyone dying or anything.