Doctor: "Your blood pressure's a touch high. We'll call it hypertension."
Patient: "It was fine last year."
Doctor: "The threshold changed."
Patient: "My blood pressure changed?"
Doctor: "No. The number we call high changed. Used to be one-forty. Now it's one-thirty."
Patient: "So the same reading that was healthy in 2016 is a disease now."
Doctor: "That's the current guidance."
Patient: "Who moved the line?"
Doctor: "A panel."
Patient: "And what happens the day I cross it?"
Doctor: "We'd start you on something."
Patient: "Forever?"
Doctor: "Typically, yes."
Patient: "So a committee lowered a number, and now I'm a customer for life."
Doctor: "I wouldn't put it like that."
Patient: "How would you put it?"
Doctor: "Your blood pressure's a touch high. We'll call it hypertension."
Patient: "It was fine last year."
Doctor: "The threshold changed."
Patient: "My blood pressure changed?"
Doctor: "No. The number we call high changed. Used to be one-forty. Now it's one-thirty."
Patient: "So the same reading that was healthy in 2016 is a disease now."
Doctor: "That's the current guidance."
Patient: "Who moved the line?"
Doctor: "A panel."
Patient: "And what happens the day I cross it?"
Doctor: "We'd start you on something."
Patient: "Forever?"
Doctor: "Typically, yes."
Patient: "So a committee lowered a number, and now I'm a customer for life."
Doctor: "I wouldn't put it like that."
Patient: "How would you put it?"