Down a Rat Hole?

According to reports at European Society of Cardiology Congress 2007 this week patients with a history of coronary artery disease are not meeting blood pressure targets despite the ever increasing use of medications. This according to the large, multi-country EUROASPIRE survey. The poor outcomes are likely due to the dramatic increases in obesity and diabetes in recent years, as well as a lack of improvement in smoking rates. As we often rediscover in medicine unless people also commit to changing their lifestyles drugs are next to futile.