BP, particularly SBP, rises with increasing age in both chil- Individuals who are normotensive at 55 years of age have a 90% lifetime risk for developing hyperten- More than two thirds of people 65 years of age are Because the risk of stroke increases progressively with increasing BP and because many individuals have a BP level below current drug treatment thresholds,220 nondrug or life- style approaches are recommended as a means of reducing BP in nonhypertensive individuals with an elevated BP (ie, pre-hypertension: 120 to 139 mmHg SBP or 80 to 89 mmHg Pharmacological treatment of prehypertension appears to reduce the risk of stroke. In a meta-analysis of 16 trials involving 70664 prehypertensive patients, prehyperten- sive patients randomized to active antihypertensive treatment had a consistent and statistically significant 22% reduction in the risk of stroke compared with those taking placebo Behavioral lifestyle changes are recommended by the Seventh Joint National Committee as part of a comprehen- sive treatment strategy for hypertension.221 Compelling evi- dence from >40 years of clinical trials has documented that drug treatment of hypertension prevents stroke and other BP-related target-organ damage, including heart failure, coro- nary heart disease, and renal failure.221 A meta-analysis of 23 randomized trials showed that antihypertensive drug treatment reduced the risk of stroke by 32% (95% CI, 24 39; P=0.004) compared with no drug treatment.230 The use of antihyper- tensive therapies among those with mild hypertension (SBP, 140 to 159 mmHg; DBP, 90 to 99 mmHg; or both), however, was not clearly shown to reduce the risk of first stroke in a Cochrane Database Systematic Review, although a trend of clinically important magnitude was present (RR, 0.51; 95% CI, 0.24 1.08). 