Did you know that 50 million Americans (1 in 4 adults) have high blood pressure and 70% of these are unaware that they have it? Hypertension (high blood pressure) is a major risk factor for blood vessel disease of the heart, brain, and kidneys leading to heart attack, stroke, and kidney failure. In fact, studies have shown that even what we once considered normal blood pressures increase the risk of death from heart disease and stroke, as compared to blood pressure of less than 120/80 mm of mercury.
If you think of the heart as a common water pump, then the higher the pressure it has to pump against, the quicker it will wear out; similarly the higher the pressure in a hose the quicker it will deteriorate and break.
Last year the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute released new clinical guidelines for the prevention, detection, and treatment of high blood pressure. They included a new category named “prehypertension”, a BP level of 120-139/80-90 mm of mercury; this affects about 22% of American adults or 45 million people. Normal BP is now classified as less than 120/80, and the new abnormal categories are:
“Prehypertension” 120-139/80-89
Stage 1 hypertension 140-159/90-99
Stage 2 hypertension equal to/greater than 160/100
The old stage 3 has been eliminated. The guidelines do not recommend drug therapy for those with “prehypertension”, but do encourage lifestyle changes, such as losing excess weight, smoking cessation, becoming physically active, eating low fat, high vegetable content meals, and limiting alcohol consumption. All these lifestyle modifications have been shown to decrease BP and morbidity and mortality from cardiovascular disease.
Another new study confirms what we already know, that “type A” behaviors such as impatience and hostility, increase the long-term risk of developing high blood pressure. So, chill out, meditate, take deep breaths, do yoga, exercise…all are relaxing. Luckily psychological factors such as competitiveness, depression, and anxiety do not seem to increase this risk.
