High blood pressure: Millions might be prescribed the wrong medication – how to know

Professor of Family and Community Medicine Michael Potter, MD, said: “It’s clear that selection of hypertension medication should be tailored to the individual, rather than driven by considerations of race.

“Physicians shouldn’t settle for anything else but excellent blood pressure control in their patients and should make use of all available options to achieve this.”

Other race based guidelines are prevalent in medicine and have come under similar scrutiny.

These have been accused of contributing to healthcare disparities between ethnic groups.

One article published in the Lancet noted: “Race is a poor proxy for human variation.

“Physical characteristics used to identify racial groups vary with geography and do not correspond to underlying biological traits.

“Genetic research shows that humans cannot be divided into biologically distinct subcategories.”

source: express.co.uk