Lifestyle Management
The National Heart Foundation of Australia recommends lifestyle management for all hypertension patients.
(including those taking medicines to control their condition.)
Lifestyle management includes regular exercise on most or all days of the week, smoking cessation, weight loss for those overweight, healthy eating (with dietary salt restriction), and limiting alcohol intake.
Several classes of antihypertensive drugs are suitable as first-line therapy for hypertension, including ACE inhibitors or angiotensin II receptor antagonists, dihydropyridine calcium channel blockers (and low-dose thiazide diuretics for patients aged 65 and older). The thiazides are associated with new onset diabetes and should be used with caution in patients with glucose intolerance and/or metabolic syndrome.
Beta-blockers are no longer recommended as first-line agents for uncomplicated hypertension since they too increase risk of diabetes, and some are linked to trends of worse outcomes compared to other antihypertensive agents. Patients with comorbid disease or associated conditions may benefit from specific agents.