Should you take medication in order to acheive a Blood Pressure of 120/80? The SPRINT trial (Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial) originally published in 2015 is the NIH’s landmark blood pressure (BP) lowering trial. According to the NIH press release (bold emphasis mine),
"When SPRINT was designed, the well-established clinical guidelines recommended a systolic blood pressure of less than 140 mm Hg for healthy adults and 130 mm Hg for adults with kidney disease or diabetes. Investigators designed SPRINT to determine the potential benefits of achieving systolic blood pressure of less than 120 mm Hg for hypertensive adults 50 years and older who are at risk for developing heart disease or kidney disease." (1)