Nearly 1 in 3 have high blood pressure
By Steve Sternberg
USA Today
The number of U.S. adults with high blood pressure has risen dramatically over the past decade, reversing a downward trend begun in the early '70s and putting millions more at risk of heart attacks and stroke, said a study out yesterday.
About 65 million adults in the United States have high blood pressure, compared with 50 million reported in a 1995 study that looked at survey data from 1988 to 1994, study authors reported.
"Just shy of 1 in 3 adults in has high blood pressure. That's startling," said lead author Larry Fields of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The study appears in today's Hypertension.
Researchers blame the blood pressure rise on population growth, the population's advancing age, the increase in the black population, which is prone to high blood pressure, and the nation's growing obesity epidemic. Fields cautioned the obesity link is circumstantial because researchers didn't correlate their findings with data on body mass index.
The study drew on data from the Census Bureau and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 1999 to 2000. Previous studies using similar data indicate that blood pressure rates have fluctuated since the '60s but bottomed out at 20 percent between 1988 and 1991 before beginning to climb.
Researchers say they can't track the trend with precision because previous surveys focused on those whose blood pressure topped 140 millimeters of mercury during the heart's contractions (the top number of blood pressure readings); those whose pressure topped 90 millimeters of mercury when the heart's at rest (the bottom number) and those receiving treatment for high blood pressure. The two newer surveys included people whose doctors have twice said they have high blood pressure without making a diagnosis or prescribing treatment.
The expanded definition is believed to more accurately reflect the size of the population with high blood pressure, says David Goff of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C.
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Here are tips from the National Institute of Health on how to lower your blood pressure: 1. Maintain a healthy weight Being overweight or obese is associated with high blood pressure. Set a reasonable weight-loss goal — start with 10 percent of your body weight — and cut back on calorie intake or increase activity until you are losing one or two pounds a week. To lose a pound in a week, you'll have to cut back or burn off about 500 calories per day. 2. Be physically active You don't have to train for the Olympics to have a healthy activity level. Thirty minutes a day helps. Taking the stairs counts; so does washing the car. If you're already doing 30 minutes a day, add on a few minutes. 3. Eat healthy The NIH recommends keeping a food diary, and making sure you've included lots of fruits, vegetables and lowfat dairy. Choose foods low in saturated fat, total fat and cholesterol. 4. Cut back on sodium Instead of picking up the salt shaker, use spices, onion and garlic to flavor foods. Check the labels on the foods you eat and limit yourself to less than 2,400 milligrams, or about one teaspoon of table salt, per day. Your doctor may prescribe less. 5. Ease up on alcohol Moderate levels of drinking, according to the NIH, are one drink a day for women and two drinks a day for men. A drink is: one 12-ounce beer; 5 ounces of wine or 1 1/2 ounces of 80-proof whiskey. 6. Take prescribed drugs as directed Post notes to yourself to help you remember. And if you are taking medicine to control your blood pressure, you still have to follow steps 1-5.
Get those numbers down
