Treating high blood pressure would save lives and pay for itself, experts said on Tuesday.

The report commissioned by the drug industry lobby concluded that treating all the cases of uncontrolled high blood pressure among Medicare beneficiaries would save 77,000 lives by avoiding heart attacks and strokes.

The study by Wisconsin-based Milliman Consultants and Actuaries found that, when the new Medicare prescription drug benefit starts in 2006, active and continuous drug treatment of 19 million untreated and undertreated high blood pressure patients would lead to 115,000 fewer cases of stroke and 106,000 fewer heart attacks and other coronary “events.”

An estimated 65 million Americans, or a third of U.S. adults, have high blood pressure, defined as levels of 140/90 or higher.

It can be treated with a range of drugs such as diuretics, beta-blockers and ACE inhibitors. Exercise and a diet low in salt and fat and rich in fruits and vegetables can both prevent and reverse high blood pressure.

The Milliman study, commissioned by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, found the drug treatments would essentially pay for themselves.

“The ‘no additional medical costs’ result is based on actuarial methods where the expense increase due to active hypertension treatment using prescription drug therapy is identically offset by reduced medical expenses associated with stroke and coronary artery disease events,” the report said.

“We estimate the annual increased cost and the annual reduced medical expenses to be worth about $7.4 billion each.”

The report says more money would be saved if people could be persuaded to diet and exercise.

And it says it assumed that everyone would take their pills as directed.

But the report acknowledged that does not always happen. Experts agree. Patients often fail to take their drugs as directed and or fill their prescriptions.