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Ross Barbera
Liz Kolligs
Liz Kolligs
Kyle Blumenthal
Cliff Miller
From left, artists Ross Barbara, Julie Doczi, Liz Kolligs, Kyle Blumenthal, Cliff Miller and executive director Allison Cruz

By Heidi Sutton

Do you have a case of the winter blues? A surefire cure is a visit to the Winners Fine Art Showcase, currently on view at the Mills Pond Gallery in St. James through Feb. 15. The gorgeous exhibit features the works of local artists Ross Barbera, Kyle Blumenthal, Julie Doczi and Liz Kolligs, who won the 2018 Members Showcase, along with Cliff Miller who took first place in the 2019 Water, Water Everywhere exhibit. The artists were selected by juror Dawn Lee, art curator of the Omni Gallery in Uniondale, professor and chair of the art department at St. Joseph’s College, and coordinator of the artist-in-residency program at Fire Island National Seashore. An artist reception was held on Jan. 25.

According to STAC’s Executive Director Allison Cruz, the annual exhibit was created over 30 years ago “to allow the public to experience a larger body of work from winning artists.” Each artist chose from 6 to 14 of their favorite pieces to showcase and then Cruz was tasked with the design aspect, filling four gallery rooms and the center hall on the first floor of the historic 1838 Greek Revival mansion.

“That is my favorite part of the show … those days before when I get to spend time with the works and figure out how each piece might be best presented in what space,” she said. “It’s a challenging puzzle but so satisfying and I really learn so much about the artist during this time.” 

The executive director is proud of the end result. “I think this is an impressive exhibit. There is such a wide variety of painting styles and mediums and techniques by five accomplished artists … and all from Long Island! Viewers should easily connect with the works in this show.”

While completely unintentional, much of the artwork shares a common theme − the beauty of Mother Earth. “I love the threads of nature that run through almost all the works in this show,” said Cruz. “Each artist clearly has a love and respect for the natural world. Although their work is very different in style, medium and color palette, that theme is strong throughout the show. That does not usually happen in a Winners Show but when it does it is just wonderful. It makes for a strong exhibit.” 

A perfect example of this is “Mountain Mallards” by renowned illustrator, portrait artist and muralist Cliff Miller. Beautifully executed, it is sure to be a conversation starter (yes, it is an oil painting; no it is not a photograph!). The Seaford resident has several other pieces in the show including a jaw-dropping Western-themed portrait titled “Desperado” and a humorous oil on gesso panel piece titled “The McDivots,” which features a golfer riding an alligator to the next tee.

Pastel lovers will be drawn to Julie Doczi’s delicate landscapes including “Croatian Stream,” “Connecticut Marsh” and one of the artist’s favorite, “The Lavender Harvester.” In her artist statement, the Port Jefferson Station resident said, “My journey into painting as an adult began when I encountered the medium of pastel. I began to find my view of the world around me opening up in a way never experienced before. It is a joyous experience to put these perceptions onto paper, to capture a scene and ultimately have it achieve its own unique identity.” Doczi’s “First Bloom” depicting a blue morning glory is simply stunning.

If you have a soft heart for horses, you’ll love the large equine oil on canvas paintings of Liz Kolligs including “A Herd of Your Own,” “Reflection” and “Bell – A Portrait.” The artist also has several beautiful wildlife paintings on display including “At the Edge of the Woods” and “Mill Neck Creek.” As a lecturer and demonstrator of equine painting techniques and anatomy throughout Long Island, the Glen Cove resident has truly perfected her art.

Perhaps the most unique art represented in the exhibit is by Kyle Blumenthal, who also has the most pieces in the show. Drawing inspiration from nature, her large 3-D paintings made from fabric, including several from her “All the Future Is in Today” series, explore the ocean and the Earth in an abstract manner. 

“I like to see my work float in midair,” the Stony Brook resident said in a recent interview with TBR News Media. “More and more of my paintings have started to come away from the wall as if to free themselves from restrictions and straight edges.”

Rounding out the exhibit are the massive landscape paintings of Ross Barbera. Created in acrylic on canvas and watercolor on paper, Barbera “strives to create images that communicate a sense of beauty, painterly integrity, and capture specific places in terms of time, light, space and texture,” according to the Ronkonkoma resident’s artist statement. One can’t miss the 48- by 72-inch winter-themed piece, “The Athabasca Glacier, Alberta Canada” or the eye-popping “Bonnie’s Summer Garden.”

“These talented artists are making passionate statements about the things they value in this world but in a gentle way,” said Cruz. “There is so much room for wonder!”

The Mills Pond Gallery, located at 660 Route 25A, St. James, will present the Smithtown Township Arts Council’s Winners Showcase through Feb. 15. The gallery is open Wednesdays to Fridays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, call 631-862-6575 or visit www.millspondgallery.org.

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The Harmonic Tides Quartet. Photo by Chris Beattie

They’re back! Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the Harbormen, the local choral group affiliated with the national Barbershop Harmony Society, will be available in groups of four to sing in homes, offices, restaurants, hospitals, schools and more for the romantically inclined.

“A great home video memory,” as one satisfied customer said, not to mention a good Instagram story with each quartet in bright red blazers and bowties.

Love songs have great histories and each has its own way of getting to the heart. Some evoke longing, others celebrate the object of affection. “Let Me Call You Sweetheart,” one of the songs that the Harbormen quartets sing to Valentines, was written in 1910 by Leo Friedman and Beth Slater Whitson. It went on to be recorded by Bing Crosby, the Mills Brothers, Pat Boone and was sung every year for decades by Yankee Stadium public address announcer Bob Sheppard on Mother’s Day. Bette Midler sang the song in “The Rose” and Shirley McLaine sang it in “Downton Abbey.”  It even ended up on the recent TV hit, “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.”

Quartet members include scientists, salesmen, engineers, an air traffic controller, a chef, author and policeman, among others.

Fred Conway, a retired math teacher with the group since 1966, has sung in all kinds of situations.  “I remember showing up at an overcrowded bowling alley to deliver our songs to a bowler, and trudging through eight inches of snow to sing to a secretary and her audience of fifty amused colleagues.”

Herb Mordkoff, another member, remembers being hired to sing with his quartet to a waitress in a diner near MacArthur Airport one year, then being hired to return when her husband proposed. “Not a dry eye in the whole diner,” he said. A year and a half later, his quartet was singing for the couples’ child’s first birthday party.  

The package for $75 includes two songs, a box of chocolates, personalized card and a signature rose.  To book a quartet for a singing Valentine or any occasion, call 631-644-0129 or email [email protected]. A portion of the proceeds go to the Good Shepherd Hospice in Port Jefferson.

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Photo by Tom Caruso

DIVING IN

Tom Caruso of Smithtown was in the right place at the right time when he snapped this photo on Nov. 23.  He writes, ‘I was photographing the river at the Nissequogue River State Park when I heard a commotion behind me.  I turned to see this deer jumping into the river to escape someone’s dog who had chased it out of the woods.  I quickly snapped a few shots and was lucky to get this one just as the deer hit the water.  He swam across the river and exited on Short Beach.’ 

Send your Photo of the Week to [email protected]

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GIVING BACK

During the holiday season, Suffolk Federal joined forces with the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Long Island and raised $5,932 for their Holidays for Kids Sake program. “Giving back and enriching our local communities is both a mission and a passion for Suffolk Federal,” said Ralph D. Spencer Jr., Suffolk Federal president and CEO. Pictured above, from left, Keith Miller, executive vice president and CLO at Suffolk Federal and BBBSLI president’s council member with Mark Cox, chief executive officer, BBBSLI. 

Photo from Suffolk Federal

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Image courtesy of PSEG

PSEG Long Island announced on Jan. 21 it has launched a new mobile app that enables customers using Apple or Android devices to securely and easily manage electric accounts while on the go. 

“Our world is driven by technology. Today’s customers expect companies to do everything they can to make it easier and more convenient to do business,” said Dan Eichhorn, PSEG Long Island’s president and COO and chief customer officer for PSEG Long Island and PSE&G. 

The new app allows customers to make payments, compare and manage energy use, report an outage, manage payment options and contact customer service. To get started, customers simply link their My Account to the new PSEG Long Island app.

Rick Walden, vice president of customer services at PSEG Long Island, said, “Ultimately, our customers are at the heart of everything we do. This new app, as well as the other customer service improvements we are pursuing, help PSEG Long Island provide our customers with best-in-class experiences and become the electric company of the future.”

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The exterior of Wahlburgers in Port Jefferson Station. The restaurant sign was recently removed. File photo

Restaurant chain Wahlburgers officially closed its only New York location in Port Jefferson Station at 4837 Nesconset Highway over the past weekend. 

Donnie Walhberg takes photos with a fan during his December, 2018 appearance. Photo by Rita J. Egan

A statement was issued on the restaurant’s Facebook page on Jan. 26 that read, “To our Port Jefferson Wahlburgers fans: Our Wahlburgers location in Port Jefferson has served its final burger. Thank you for all the love since we opened our doors in 2016! We look forward to seeing you all again at one of our other restaurants in the future!”

Donnie Wahlberg, co-owner of the chain along with brothers Mark and Chef Paul Wahlberg, last visited the location on Dec. 28, 2018. The interior decor was filled with photos and memories celebrating the Wahlberg brothers’ life journeys from Dorchester neighborhood kids to rising chef and international superstars.

Known for its gourmet burgers, sandwiches, tater tots, macaroni and cheese and frappes, the chain is currently in 18 states including New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts as well as Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom.

The shuttered Port Jefferson Station site has played host to a number of eating establishments over the years including Eldorado Southern Bar & Grill, Road Trip American Ale House and the Driftwood Inn. Plans are currently underway to open a new restaurant within the next few months.

Compiled by Heidi Sutton

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Stock photo

By Elof Axel Carlson

Elof Axel Carlson

We sometimes say “you can’t see the forest for the trees” to describe our frustration that details sometimes obscure the big pictures in our lives. Those bigger pictures are often what matters most to us − our family, our career, our sense of self-worth, or the meaning we hope to find in life.

It also has a deep philosophic or religious significance to people. We talk about ultimate meaning, purpose or connectedness to the universe as ways to express this feeling. I experience it in my life as a scientist. I am a reductionist and by that I mean I use reason and the tools of science to explore all aspects of the material universe. What is that universe? It is the world of atoms, molecules, macromolecules, membranes, organelles, cells, tissues, organs, organism, populations and ecosystems that constitute the hierarchies of life from its smallest to its largest aspects. 

You can’t have a forest without a lot of trees. How much is a “lot”? Two trees? 100 trees? 1,000 trees? There is no definition of how many trees make a forest. Language can be imprecise by the standards used by science. A foot is 12 inches. A mile is 5,280 feet, but a forest is not X trees where X is a fixed number. 

This does not mean the term “forest” is meaningless. We know a forest when we see many trees even if we don’t have a precise number to offer. I cannot tell you the exact number of cells in my present adult body, but I know roughly what it can’t exceed (it is trillions, not quadrillions; trillions, not billions). When my brother Roland first visited our home on Mud Road in Setauket, he looked in the back lot and said “Elof, the children are entering the forest!” There were about 40 trees in our one-third acre lot adjoining Gelinas Junior High School. 

There are two approaches to studying life. We can study components and the field of anatomy would be a familiar and acceptable model of how science classifies the parts of the organisms studied. The second approach is through function and the field of physiology tries to relate structures to their functions. They are often multiple. 

A hand holds, touches, feels; it grips, hits, shakes, picks, wipes, waves, counts, points, caresses, prays or even thumbs a ride. A middle finger hand gives an insult. Reductionism in science is the attempt to reduce the complex to the simple by isolating the components of more complex things and after isolating the components and learning of their functions, it reconstitutes the pieces and hopes to restore the functions. It can be done with viruses. It can be done partially with bacterial and eukaryotic cells. One can take the cell membrane of one amoeba, the nucleus of a second and the “cytoplasmic goop” of a third and reconstitute a live amoeba capable of reproducing from the three components. 

There is a second way of looking at life called holism. It regards complexity in living cells as irreducible by reductionism. There is something inherent in that structure that cannot be duplicated by reductionist tools and efforts. In the nineteenth century names like enteleche, elan vital, vitalism, were among the terms used for this holistic interpretation of life. 

It was hard to take away from God the power of creation. Many scientific holists do not invoke religion as the basis for their belief in a complexity that defies reductionism. They feel that the shades of distinction in living systems are either infinite or so vast that no human effort will synthesize a human zygote from which a child will be born. They also feel that whether that complexity eventually yields to reductionism, the world’s problems are so numerous and complex, that we cannot use reductionism alone as our means of interpreting how we live or who we are. They are more like phenomenologists in the field of philosophy who see endless shades of meaning in even the simplest events like describing the color of objects we see. 

My response to this conflict is at least satisfying to my worldview − I see both trees and the forest, reductionism and holism, as essential for navigating the universe in which I live. I can ascend or descend the scale of magnitude of the universe from atoms to galaxies. My one exclusion in the material universe is the supernatural. 

Elof Axel Carlson is a distinguished teaching professor emeritus in the Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology at Stony Brook University.

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Chicken Kiev

By Barbara Beltrami

There are so many things we see on menus and order because we think they’re much too fancy to cook ourselves. And what a mistake that is because they’re most likely no more complicated or mysterious than the things we regularly cook. This is especially true with chicken breast dishes. Just because they have foreign-sounding names in italics, we are intimidated by them. The following recipes are traditional “continental” chicken dishes that have been around for ages and that are quite easy. I’ve put their fancy names in italics so you’ll feel like a celebrity chef when you make them!

Chicken Marsala

Chicken Marsala

YIELD: Makes 4 servings.

INGREDIENTS:

2 boneless skinless thin chicken breasts, pounded to ½-inch thickness

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 large shallot, minced

3 bruised garlic cloves

3 to 4 ounces assorted mushrooms, sliced thin

½ cup sweet Marsala

2/3 to 1 cup chicken broth

1 tablespoon fresh rosemary leaves, finely chopped

DIRECTIONS: 

Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. In a large skillet, heat one tablespoon butter and one tablespoon oil over medium high heat. Add chicken and cook 1½ to 2 minutes on each side until golden brown. Remove from skillet and set aside to keep warm. Add another tablespoon each of oil and butter to skillet; saute shallot and garlic just until garlic releases its aroma, about half a minute, then remove it and discard. Add the third tablespoons of oil and butter and the mushrooms, saute over medium high heat until juices evaporate and mushrooms are tender; adjust seasonings if necessary. 

Add Marsala; simmer until reduced by half, about two minutes, then add chicken broth and simmer until reduced by half, about 3 to 5 minutes. Return chicken to skillet; simmer in liquid, turning once, until just warmed through, transfer to warm platter; melt final tablespoon butter in liquid; add rosemary and stir; spoon liquid over chicken and serve immediately with noodles and a green vegetable or salad.

Chicken a la Kiev

Chicken a la Kiev

YIELD: Makes 6 servings.

INGREDIENTS:

6 skinless boneless thin chicken breast halves, pounded to ½-inch thickness

1 stick chilled unsalted butter, cut into 6 finger-shaped pieces

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives

Flour for dredging

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup unseasoned breadcrumbs

Oil for deep frying

DIRECTIONS: 

Place butter in middle of each chicken breast; sprinkle with salt, pepper and chives and roll up, envelope fashion; flesh should adhere without toothpicks. Dredge each roll lightly in flour and then egg, then breadcrumbs. Cover and refrigerate one hour. Fill a skillet with 1-inch oil; heat to 360 F. Being careful of splattering, gently drop each chicken roll into sizzling oil; fry on all sides until golden brown. Remove from pan, drain on paper towels and serve immediately with mashed or boiled potatoes and mixed vegetables.

Chicken Piccata

Chicken Piccata

YIELD: Makes 4 servings.

INGREDIENTS:

4 large thin skinless, boneless chicken breast halves pounded to ½-inch thickness

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1/3 cup flour

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces

4 bruised garlic cloves

1/3 cup dry white wine

1 tablespoon capers, rinsed, drained and chopped

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/3 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

4 lemon wedges

DIRECTIONS: 

Season chicken on both sides with salt and pepper, then dredge in flour and shake off excess. In a large skillet heat half the oil and half the butter over medium-high heat. Add chicken breasts and cook without moving them until bottoms are deep golden brown, about 2 minutes. Carefully turn them and cook until barely brown, about one minute. Remove to a clean plate. 

Add garlic and remaining two tablespoons oil and cook over medium heat until garlic starts to brown and releases its aroma; do not let it scorch; remove and discard. Add wine and capers and cook over medium heat, swirling liquid and scraping browned bits from bottom of pan until liquid is almost completely evaporated, about 3 minutes. Add half a cup of water and remaining butter and swirl again over medium-high heat until liquid forms an emulsion, about 1 minute.

Return chicken to skillet and simmer in sauce until cooked through and sauce is thick enough to coat spoon; transfer chicken to warm platter. Stir lemon juice into sauce, pour over chicken, sprinkle with parsley and garnish with lemon wedges. Serve hot with rice and a green vegetable.

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A male wood duck flaunts his iridescent colors at the Stony Brook Duck Pond. Photo by Jay Gao
A Gadwall drake. Photo by Luke Ormand
A redhead drake. Photo by Luke Ormand
Red-breasted Merganser drake. Photo by Luke Ormand
Northern Pintail drake. Photo by Luke Ormand
Bufflehead drake. Photo by Luke Ormand

By John L. Turner

Many Long Islanders look forward to the winter. It’s a time for skiing, skating, sledding and building snow people. It’s the time of year to walk along quiet coastal shorelines devoid of the maddening crowds and, during the holidays, provides the opportunity to reconnect with family and friends. For folks inclined to stay indoors during the cold, it’s a time to catch up on best-selling books accompanied with the obligatory hot chocolate, wine or spirits of a stronger nature (a smooth tasting bourbon, anyone?).

My primary attraction of the winter? Waterfowl or, more precisely, ducks, swans and geese and the more the merrier! Each winter I look forward to the arrival of nearly three dozen colorful waterfowl species that fly south to overwinter on the Island’s ponds, lakes, harbors, bays and near-shore ocean waters, making our island one of the premier waterfowl viewing locations in North America. 

They join several species that are on Long Island year-round, such as mallards and mute swans. They arrive here from far-flung places where they’ve spent the breeding season: northern forested ponds, the tundra wetlands of the far north ranging above the Arctic Circle and North America’s “duck factory” — the prairie pothole region of the Dakotas, Montana and the prairie provinces of Canada.

All waterfowl are avian eye candy and, unlike many other birds that are challenging to identify because they constantly flit around, generally stay put on the water, giving the viewer ample opportunity to enjoy their rich tapestry of color and texture and to make the correct species identification. 

If you think I’m exaggerating about their beauty, as soon as you finish this article, look up the following species – wood duck, harlequin duck, redhead, common eider, hooded merganser, ring-necked duck and long-tailed duck (especially the male). Or how about the little butterball-shaped buffleheads, or the similarly small ruddy duck and green-winged teal. Let’s not forget common goldeneye, graceful northern pintail or larger northern shoveler, which uses its unique spatulated bill to feed on algae, duckweed and small aquatic animals available in freshwater ponds.

One duck I always look forward to seeing is the least showiest — the gadwall (one of the prairie pothole species). They overwinter on ponds throughout the Three Village area and are regular winter visitors on the pond at Frank Melville Memorial Park and the pond extending south of the Old Field Road bridge.

Take the time to look closely at a male gadwall and you’ll agree with one of the monikers birders’ call it -— the duck in the herringbone suit. The feathers are finely barred, with subtle reticulated patterns reminiscent of a maze diagram a child would try to solve; no surprise these beautiful little feathers are prized by fly fisherman for fly tying. As you watch gadwalls don’t be surprised if they turn “bottoms up,” plunging their heads below their surface with only their rumps showing as they feed on aquatic vegetation that sustains them through the winter.

Over the past decade us waterfowl aficionados have more reason to enjoy the winter season, as several “exotic” waterfowl species like barnacle and pink-footed geese have become regular visitors. These are species common to regions in Europe that have begun to nest in northeastern Canada and instead of crossing the Atlantic Ocean to overwinter in Europe, they head south to coastal New England and Long Island. 

And due to taxonomy (the science of biological classification) we get a new species of Canada goose called the cackling goose in our midst, identifiable by its smaller body and shorter neck.

To satisfy my seasonal waterfowl fix I recently visited the bluffs adjacent to the Old Field Lighthouse, overlooking Long Island Sound. I was in search of hardy sea ducks and I wasn’t disappointed. 

Focusing the 40× scope on the rafts of sea ducks, I was quickly rewarded by a wonderful collection of feathered beauty — common goldeneyes, red-breasted mergansers and several species of scoters (black, white-winged and surf).

Also bobbing in the waves was my favorite — the exotic looking long-tailed duck (a future article on this duck awaits). Common loons and a few gull species were sprinkled throughout the calm, near-shore waters. Many ducks were actively feeding, diving to the bottom to forage on mussels and snails. The weather was below freezing and I marveled at the birds’ abilities to thrive in such conditions without a problem.

Not so for me, as my fingers and feet were growing uncomfortably numb after an hour of standing in the relentless chill. But as I ambled back to the warmth of a car, with binoculars slung around my neck and birding scope on my shoulder, forefront in my mind were the beautiful images of all these ducks — an annual gift of the winter season I never tire of receiving. 

If you haven’t yet enjoyed taking a closer look at winter waterfowl, consider it a holiday present wrapped in pretty paper with a gaudy bow. I hope you take the time to unwrap this winter gift in the weeks ahead.

A resident of Setauket, John Turner is conservation chair of the Four Harbors Audubon Society, author of “Exploring the Other Island: A Seasonal Nature Guide to Long Island” and president of Alula Birding & Natural History Tours.

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Lifestyle modifications, including getting more exercise, can lower blood pressure. Stock photo
Left untreated, high blood pressure has long-term health consequences

By David Dunaief, M.D.

We have focused a large amount of effort on the treatment and prevention of hypertension (high blood pressure) in the U.S. This insidious disorder includes prehypertension —defined as a systolic blood pressure (the top number) of 120-139 mmHg and/or a diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number) of 80-89 mmHg. Prehypertension is pervasive in the United States, affecting approximately one-third of people (1).

The consequences of prehypertension are significant, even though there are often no symptoms. For example, it increases the risk of cardiovascular disease and heart attack dramatically: in an analysis of the Framingham Heart Study, researchers found a 3.5-fold increase in the risk of heart attack and a 1.7-fold increase in the risk of cardiovascular disease among those with prehypertension (2). This is why it’s crucial to treat it in these early stages, even before it reaches the level of hypertension.

Another study, the Women’s Health Initiative, which followed more than 60,000 postmenopausal women for an average of 7.7 years, showed an increase in heart attack deaths, heart attacks and strokes compared to those with normal blood pressure (less than 120/80 mmHg). In the Strong Heart Study, prehypertension independently increased the risk for cardiovascular events at 12 years significantly (3).

Furthermore, according to the Framingham Heart Study, the risk of sustained hypertension increases substantially the higher the baseline blood pressure (4).

This may or may not impact mortality, but it certainly does impact morbidity (sickness). Quality of life may be dramatically reduced with heart disease, heart attack and hypertension.

Treatment of prehypertension

In my view, it would be foolish not to treat prehypertension. Recommendations for treatment, according to the Joint National Commission (JNC) 7, the association responsible for guidelines on the treatment of prehypertension and hypertension, are lifestyle modifications (5). These involve a Mediterranean-type diet called DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension), with a focus on fruits, vegetables, reduction in sodium to a maximum of 1,500 mg (⅔ of a teaspoon on a daily basis), exercise, weight loss and no more than moderate amounts of alcohol (1 or fewer drinks for women and 2 or fewer drinks for men on a daily basis). 

Some studies have also shown that a diet rich in potassium helps to reduce blood pressure (6). Fortunately, foods like fruits, vegetables, beans and legumes have significant amounts of potassium. However, do not take potassium supplements unless instructed for other reasons by a physician; high potassium can be very dangerous and may precipitate a heart attack.

The danger in treating prehypertension comes only when medication is used, due to side effects. 

Unfortunately, the Trial of Preventing Hypertension (TROPHY) suggests the use of a hypotensive agent, the blood pressure drug Atacand (candesartan) to treat prehypertensive patients (7). The drug reduced the incidence of hypertension significantly compared to placebo over two years. However, after stopping therapy, the following two years showed only a small benefit over placebo. Yet the authors implied that this may be a plausible treatment. The study was funded by Astra-Zeneca, the makers of the drug. 

In an editorial, Dr. Jay I. Meltze, a clinical specialist in hypertension at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, noted that the results were interpreted in an unusually favorable way (8). 

Prehypertension is an asymptomatic disorder that has been shown to respond well to lifestyle changes — why create symptoms with medication? Therefore, I don’t recommend treating prehypertension patients with medication. Thankfully, the JNC7 agrees.

However, it should be treated -— and treated with lifestyle modifications. The side effects from this approach are only better overall health. Please get your blood pressure checked at least on an annual basis.

References:

(1) cdc.gov. (2) Stroke 2005; 36: 1859–1863. (3) Hypertension 2006;47:410-414. (4) Lancet 2001;358:1682-6. (5) nhlbi.nih.gov. (6) Archives of Internal Medicine 2001;161:589-593. (7) N Engl J Med. 2006;354:1685-1697. (8) Am J Hypertens. 2006;19:1098-1100.

Dr. Dunaief is a speaker, author and local lifestyle medicine physician focusing on the integration of medicine, nutrition, fitness and stress management. For further information, visit www.medicalcompassmd.com.     

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