My understanding of the study is that the risk of stroke in patients with hypertension remains higher than that of normotensive
people even after the hypertension is successfully controlled with drugs.
Certainly the risk of stroke in those hypertensive people who are not treated or poorly treated would be much higher than that of
those whose hypertension is well-controlled with drugs.
The message, I believe, is that once you develop hypertension, the risk of stroke cannot be equalized to that of the normotensive.
The only thing you can do is to detect the hypertension as early as possible so that you don't let it advance, in which case you will
require more than one drug and the risk of stroke goes up even after the successful control.
In my opinion, the finding of this study is not surprising.
Primary prevention with diet and exercise before drug therapy is required certainly has limitation, and perhaps can only delay
the onset of hypertension up to certain point or certain age and cannot be the answer to the millions of people who develop
hypertension in this country every year.