(HealthScoutNews) -- Losing weight and cutting back on salt intake can help seniors reduce their blood pressure after medical intervention for high blood pressure stops.

That's the finding of a study in the August issue of the American Journal of Hypertension.

Researchers at the University of Medicine and Dentistry-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School did a follow-up study on 222 of 244 people who took part in the Trial of Nonpharmacologic Interventions in the Elderly (TONE). It was a four-center controlled clinical trial to see if weight loss, reduced sodium intake or both could maintain normal blood pressure after older men and women stopped taking hypertension medication.

Four years after TONE ended, 23 percent of the people in the weight loss/sodium reduction group didn't need hypertension medication, compared to 17 percent of those in the weight-loss-only group, 15 percent in the sodium reduction group, and 7 percent in the usual care group.

"The probability of remaining normotensive without receiving antihypertensive medication and without sustaining a cardiovascular event remained higher in the intervention groups compared with the usual care group throughout the period of the study," the researchers say.

"This study emphasizes the importance of weight loss and sodium reduction to help keep blood pressure down and the heart working at peak efficiency," says Dr. Michael A. Weber, an editor of the American Journal of Hypertension.

About 50 million Americans -- or 23 percent -- have high blood pressure. Untreated, it causes premature aging of the body's arteries and can lead to strokes, heart attacks and kidney failure.

More information

Seniors can go to the Washington Post for more tips on controlling blood pressure.

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