[Arterial hypertension, non-drug treatment and cardiovascular risk]. / Hypertension artérielle, traitement non médicamenteux et risque cardiovasculaire.

ABSTRACT

Four non-drug measures have been shown to be effective on reduction of blood pressure low-salt diet, weight loss, reduction of alcohol consumption and sports activity. Other measures, mainly dietary (increased potassium intake, DASH diet), may also be effective. The two limits to non-drug treatment of HT are the absence of demonstrated benefit in terms of cardiovascular morbidity-mortality, and the difficulty to ensure good patient compliance with this type of often constraining measure. However, these non-drug measures could probably decrease the overall level of cardiovascular risk. The main drawback, related to the required modification of the patient's lifestyle, is poor compliance with these measures. Compliance can be improved by various methods which share in common their time-consuming nature.