Blood pressure medication can prevent heart attacks and strokes — even in people with normal blood pressure.

People with normal blood pressure, even people with no history of heart disease, can decrease their likelihood of having a stroke or heart disease if they reduce their blood pressure below normal levels. Scientists came to this conclusion in a study of 348,854 participants from 48 trials. The European Society of Cardiology says, "each 5 mmHg reduction in systolic blood pressure lowered the relative risk of major cardiovascular events by about 10%."

"Greater drops in blood pressure with medication lead to greater reductions in the risk of heart attacks and strokes," said principal investigator Professor Kazem Rahimi of the University of Oxford, UK. "This holds true regardless of the starting blood pressure level, in people who previously had a heart attack or stroke, and in people who have never had heart disease."