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Kerry J. Stewart, EdD; Michael H. Kelemen, MD
Francis Scott Key Medical Center Baltimore, Md

JAMA. 1992;267(13):1776.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.

—In their article entitled "Failure of Exercise to Reduce Blood Pressure in Patients With Mild Hypertension," Blumenthal et al¹ suggested that aerobic exercise should not be considered a replacement for pharmacological therapy in patients with mild hypertension. Because their study did not compare exercising patients with patients taking antihypertensive medication, this conclusion is overstated.

On the other hand, our study² of a similar group of patients with mild hypertension was a direct comparison of exercise training with concomitant use of propranolol hydrochloride, diltiazem hydrochloride, or placebo. Patients were randomized to drug therapy in a double-blinded manner. We found a mean blood pressure decrease from 145/97 to 133/84 mm Hg, with exercise training among all our patients. There were no differences among the drug or placebo groups in the magnitude of lowering blood pressure. As such, we concluded that patients who engage in exercise may not need . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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