Everyone aged 55 and over should be taking drugs to lower their blood pressure, even if their current reading is normal, an expert said.
Publishing a review of almost 150 studies, Professor Malcolm Law said the drugs lowered the risk of heart attack, heart failure and stroke, regardless of somebody's current reading.
He and colleagues published their findings from the largest review yet of clinical trials involving blood pressure drugs in the British Medical Journal (BMJ).
They found most types of drugs to treat blood pressure had similar effects, cutting the risk of heart attacks and heart failure by around a quarter and the risk of stroke by about a third.
These figures were based on lowering systolic blood pressure by 10mm Hg or diastolic blood pressure by 5mm Hg.
Systolic blood pressure is the pressure when the heart beats while pumping blood.
Diastolic blood pressure is the pressure when the heart is at rest between beats.
"Beyond a certain age, we're saying everyone would benefit from taking drugs that lower blood pressure," Prof Law said.
"Beyond a certain age, we all have high blood pressure and we would all benefit from lowering it.
"What we call 'normal' blood pressure is actually high, and what we call high blood pressure is actually higher."
Prof Law, who is professor of epidemiology at the Wolfson Institute at Barts and The London School of Medicine, argued that current approaches to giving people drugs actually "medicalize" them.
"The whole approach of telling some people they have high blood pressure, we see this as medicalizing as it can alarm people when their actual risk is not much above average."
Prof Law and colleagues analyzed the findings of 147 blood pressure trials published between 1966 and 2007, involving 464,000 people.
Among those aged 65 living in England and Wales, the risk of having a heart attack in the next 10 years is about 10% for men and 5% for women, researchers said.
But taking blood pressure-lowering drugs could cut the number suffering heart attacks and strokes.
In an accompanying editorial, Richard McManus from the University of Birmingham and Jonathan Mant from the University of Cambridge backed the view that blood pressure drugs should be given out on the basis of risk, regardless of blood pressure readings.
Both experts said the findings supported the idea of giving everyone over a certain age a "polypill" -- a drug that would include a statin to lower cholesterol as well as treatment for blood pressure.
Prof Law is one of the pioneers of the polypill and has argued it is a safe and effective way of helping cut the number of heart attacks and strokes in the UK.
Mike Rich, of charity the Blood Pressure Association, said: "Prevention is better than cure, but there are other proven ways to prevent high blood pressure such as healthy eating and regular exercise, which have other health benefits too."
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