For thirty years I had been completely satisfied with a 140/90 standard as the upper limit of normal blood pressure established long before I was in training in the 1951-1955 era.

Throughout my 30 years of medical practice this target served me well. With experience I confidently made small adjustments to better serve my patients.

For those over 60 years of age, I felt justified in raising the acceptable systolic standard to 150 as a general rule and giving increasing importance to the diastolic before making my decision to start blood pressure medication.

The diastolic would generally have to be 95 for me to start writing prescriptions.  After all, we are talking expensive, side effect prone drugs for the rest of the patient's life - a not inconsiderable consideration.