Almost half of U.S. adults have high blood pressure, also known as hypertension and only 25% of them have the condition under control. Because high blood pressure usually has no symptoms, many individuals are not even aware that they have it.
The condition puts people at risk for heart disease and strokes and the most staggering statistic is that about 90% of Americans will develop high blood pressure at some point in their lives.
Hypertension is largely preventable and many of the risks are controllable with lifestyle changes. Some of the risks, however, such as family history, health conditions and age are out of our control. As an example, 60% of people with diabetes have high blood pressure.
Risks that are controllable include obesity, smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, lack of exercise, too much sodium, unhealthy diet and too little potassium. These can be eliminated with lifestyle changes.
Blood pressure is measured using two numbers:
The top number refers to the amount of pressure in your arteries during the contraction of your heart muscle. This is called systolic pressure. The bottom number refers to blood pressure when your heart muscle is between beats.
When the measurement reads 120 (systolic) and 80 (diastolic), or 120/80 or less, that is considered a normal reading.
Measuring blood pressure is the only way to know whether it is too high. The condition, left untreated, can damage a person’s health in many ways. It can seriously hurt important organs like the heart, brain, kidneys and eyes.
Hypertension can damage arteries by making them less elastic, which decreases the flow of blood and oxygen to your heart and leads to heart disease. Decreased blood flow to the heart can also cause chest pain, angina, heart attack and heart failure.
Increased blood pressure can also cause arteries that supply blood and oxygen to the brain to burst or be blocked, and this can cause a stroke. During a stroke, brain cells die because of lack of oxygen and speech and movement disabilities can be the result. Additionally, strokes can cause death.
Having hypertension during midlife is also linked to having decreased cognitive function and dementia later in life. Therefore, individuals should think about how they can decrease the chances of developing dementia in later life. At the top of the “to do” list, is to control high blood pressure. Have it checked regularly and if it is high, follow suggested guidelines to stabilize and control it.
Source: www.cdc.com