Based on recently updated guidelines from the American Heart Association (AHA), roughly 22 million adults in the U.S. are eligible for drugs that lower blood pressure, but nearly half aren’t taking them, the researchers found. Greater use of these drugs could prevent up to 200,000 deaths over the next decade, they further calculated. New guidelinesLast year, the AHA, in conjunction with the American College of Cardiology and others, updated its guidelines for managing high blood pressure, also called hypertension. Based on the NHANES data, about 81 million U.S. adults have been diagnosed with high blood pressure as of late. The researchers don’t want to discount the importance of lifestyle changes for managing high blood pressure, such as exercise and less sodium in people’s diets.