Appropriately increased interest and concern about high blood pressure as a major public health problem coincided with the indication that the risks of hypertension-related morbidity and mortality could be reduced by reduction of blood pressure. Consensus suggestions that individualized approaches be used in treating patients with mild hypertension stimulated further investigations of non-pharmacological methods. Such investigations were also of considerable interest in relation to understanding the physiology of blood pressure control as well as the development of less costly non-drug therapies. Interest was heightened by information suggesting that there might be distinctly harmful side effects related to antihypertensive drug therapy, particularly thiazide diuretics, in some settings. Studies of non-drug therapies included dietary modifications primarily involving weight reduction and sodium restriction with increasing recent concern about other factors such as alcohol intake, dietary fat, calcium, magnesium, and potassium intake.