An estimated 50 million Americans have high blood pressure, often called the "silent killer'' because it may not cause symptoms until the patient has suffered serious damage to the arterial system. It raises the risk of heart attacks, strokes, congestive heart failure, kidney damage, dementia and even blindness. That's a laundry list of horrors you want to avoid and so drug treatment should be an easy sell to the public.There is a massive campaign going on to educate the public to the NEW PARADIGM: "Early detection means early treatment and cure" -- just like with the American Cancer Society and the war on breast cancer. And like the war on breast cancer, it may turn out to just as disappointing. Early drug treatment may not work at all to reduce the mortality rate. It needs to be tried, however, IF they can find drugs that won't do more harm than good. Hypertension treatment is the same regardless of whether the problem is systolic or diastolic or both. But what if they have different mechanisms? Then you will need two drugs, which greatly increases your potential for serious side effects. Diet, exercise, potassium supplements chelation therapy and practically anything but drugs is the way to go in my opinion. We discuss alternatives in this report.