The same thing was done two years ago with blood pressure guidelines. I believe they lowered it to 110/70. Anything higher is considered pre-hypertensive.
Sooo, out comes the prescription pads for heavily touted meds such as norvasc for everyone.
The same thing has happened with antidepressants. For example, Celexa's patent was running out two years ago and you want to know what the pharmceutical company did? They changed a molecule or two in the original Celexa formula and called it: Lexapro! Of course, Forest Labs stated that "Lexapro" doesn't have the side effects like other SSRI's. Now the Forest Labs has millions, possibly billions of dollars in their medicine pipeline! Pretty ingenious.
I'm with Alex. I'm dubious with these "studies" that come out and lower guidelines for certain conditions. I'm willing to bet for every "study", there's a pharmacuetical company right behind it protecting it's multi-million dollar drug pipeline.
Ah, that felt good. Rant off.