Key Stats
1. Up to 65 million Americans have high blood pressure. It kills 50,000 people a year, and is a contributing factor in an estimated 261,000 deaths.
2. More men than women have hypertension until women reach menopause, when a woman's risk becomes greater than a man's.
3. About half of the 65 million Americans with high blood pressure are women, with the incidence becoming greater in women as they get older. About 20 percent of white women and 30 to 40 percent of African-American women have high blood pressure, and the prevalence rises to 80 percent in women over age 70.
4. Your blood pressure consists of two numbers--the systolic pressure and the diastolic pressure. The higher number, the systolic pressure, represents the pressure while the heart is beating. The lower number, the diastolic pressure, represents the pressure when the heart is resting between beats.
5. Blood pressure can fluctuate with eating, sleeping, and changes in posture, but a normal blood pressure reading should be less than 120/80 mm/Hg. Blood pressure between 120-139/80-89 is considered prehypertension and anything above this level (140/90) is considered hypertension or high blood pressure. If you are not acutely ill, are over 18 years of age, and are not taking antihypertensive drugs, your blood pressure is considered normal at less than 120/80 mmHg.
6. If you have prehypertension, you are more likely to develop hypertension in the future and have increased risk factors for cardiovascular disease and other conditions related to hypertension. In fact, your risk of stroke triples if you have prehypertension .
7. You may also have hypertension if either your systolic or your diastolic pressure is greater than or equal to 140 or 90 mm/Hg, respectively. That is, you can have isolated systolic hypertension. This is the most common form of high blood pressure in older Americans. The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) estimates that 65 percent of people with hypertension over age 60 have ISH
8. Dietary and lifestyle changes may help you control high blood pressure. If you have mild hypertension, you may be able to lower your blood pressure by reducing the amount of sodium in your diet and cutting back on alcohol consumption. If you are overweight, losing weight will help, as will physical activity.
9. Many people think high blood pressure is the result of lifestyle factors, such as stress, lack of exercise, drinking, or smoking, but the cause of approximately 90 to 95 percent of all hypertension cases actually can't be determined.
10. There is no cure for hypertension, but it is easily detected and usually controllable.
11. Many people who suffer from high blood pressure don't know they have it because it usually produces no symptoms. And of those who have hypertension, only 34 percent have the problem under control, defined as a level below 140/90 mm/Hg.
12. If left uncontrolled, high blood pressure can have very serious consequences. The condition can lead to stroke, heart attack, hardening of the arteries, congestive heart failure and/or kidney disease. In severe cases, it can even lead to blindness.
13. There are seven drug classes--and hundreds of individual and combination medications--to choose from when treating high blood pressure. Generally, all can lower your blood pressure, but people often respond very differently to each drug, so you will probably have to try a few of them before finding the one that works best for you.
14. Taking birth control pills has been linked with high blood pressure in women. The combination of birth control pills and smoking may be particularly dangerous. Ask your health care professional to take your blood pressure before you start taking the pill and have it checked every six months or so after you start taking it.
15. If you already have high blood pressure and you get pregnant, your pregnancy could make the condition more severe, especially in the last three months. If it goes untreated, high blood pressure in pregnancy can be dangerous to both mother and baby. Therefore, health care professionals usually closely monitor blood pressure during pregnancy.
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