High Blood Pressure Facts - "Pills will fix the problem" and Other Myths
We've got to simmer down.
High blood pressure in this nation is at an all-time high. At least 65 million adult Americans – up from 50 million just 10 years ago – have the disease, and nearly one-third don't even know they have it. And kids, heavier than ever, are being diagnosed with soaring blood pressure like never before.
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MYTH: "I'm 55 years, I don't have high blood pressure, so I'm fine."
TRUTH: Your lifetime odds of developing high blood pressure are 90%.
In the United States and other countries, like Finland and Poland, where people follow a diet high in salt and fat and low in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, blood pressure tends to rise with age. So even if your blood pressure is normal at age 55 or 65, your lifetime risk of developing high blood pressure is still about 90%. That's a huge problem because hypertension (the technical term for persistent high blood pressure) dramatically increases the risk of many crippling and deadly diseases, including dementia, kidney failure, blindness, and cardiovascular-related problems like strokes, heart failure, and heart attacks.
MYTH: "My blood pressure is normal. It's 120/80."
TRUTH: Normal is now defined as a blood pressure that is less than 120 over less than 80.
For years, 120/80 was called "normal," but in 2003 the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) redefined "normal" to mean less than 120 over less than 80. That's because definitive research has shown that the risk of heart attacks, strokes, and other cardiovascular diseases starts to rise with blood pressure levels as low as 115/75.
"Starting at about 110/70, which is a healthy blood pressure, the risk of dying from cardiovascular diseases has been shown to double for each 20-point rise in systolic pressure [the top number] and/or 10-point rise in diastolic blood pressure [the bottom number]," points out Dr. Jay Kenney, Nutrition Research Specialist at the Pritikin Longevity Center® & Spa. "This is true for people in their 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s"
By the time blood pressure hits 140/90, the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease has increased three- to four-fold. That's right, at a reading of 140/90, which many people mistakenly think is "just a little above normal," your risk has tripled or quadrupled.
To alert Americans to the harm that's happening with previously thought-to-be normal levels, the Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute established a new category called "prehypertension," which includes all Americans with blood pressures between 120/80 and 139/89. (See graph "New Classification of Blood Pressure For Adults.") People with blood pressure of 140/90 or higher are defined as having ...
MYTH: "Pills will fix the problem."
MYTH: "The side effects from drugs aren't as bad as they used to be."
MYTH: "Dietary measures must not work because doctors rarely prescribe them."
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Pritikin Perspective - Healthy Living Made Easier
Pritikin Perspective is a publication for Alumni of the Pritikin Longevity Center. It is dedicated to helping people make healthy changes in their lives. The articles in this publication should not be considered specific medical advice, as each individual circumstance is different. You are strongly encouraged to seek medical advice before beginning a program of diet and exercise.
Editor/Writer: Eugenia Killoran.
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