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Of the five high blood pressure medications, research shows that the cheapest medicine works best.

In the meantime, many patients have prescribed expensive medicines.However, the medical reporter Cho Dong-chan reported.

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Lee Jae-un in his 50s has been taking high blood pressure medicine for seven years.

[Lee Jae-un / Hypertensive: I've definitely had a drop in blood pressure.

11 million patients with hypertension in Korea.

Until now, the fact that it was important to take medicine did not mean much.

However, international collaborative research teams such as the United States, Germany, Japan, and Korea have published papers in the world's three major medical journals that reverse this theory.

Among the five types of antihypertensive drugs, the cheapest diuretic-based antihypertensive drugs were found to be the most effective.

[Yoo Seung-chan / Co-author, Internal Medicine: (Diuretic drugs) have been shown to reduce the risk of hospitalization, myocardial infarction, and stroke by about 15%.]

This study analyzed the effects of the hypertensive drugs used on 5 million patients in 9 countries including Korea.

[Professor, Park, Rae-woong / Ajuju University, Department of Medical Informatics: Using a large amount of patient data already accumulated, we have extracted patients that fit the real world, and we have obtained real-world results from patients who have access to real life.]

In the meantime, there have been studies in the medical field where expensive blood pressure medicine works well, so many people prescribe expensive medicine.

The Korean Society of Cardiology showed a cautious stance on this study.

One professor at the conference said there was no data on how consistently blood pressure was controlled by each drug, and further study was needed.

Because hypertension drugs are specialty drugs, patients can't decide which medicine to take, so the patient needs to take the medicine they have been taking so far.

Academics and governments will have to discuss how to change the guidelines for prescribing hypertension based on the findings.