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.

	Smoking & Impotence Smoking increases the risk of impotence, particularly among younger men. Among 1,300 men studied, smokers were at greater risk of erectile dysfunction than either ex-smokers on nonsmokers, and smokers in their 40s, the youngest group studied, suffered the greatest risk of all. (American Journal of Epidemiology, 2005; 161: 346) Read More

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 hypertension.

New Classification of Blood Pressure For Adults

Source: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Myth: "Pills will cure the problem."

Truth: Hypertension increases your risk of dying from cardiovascular disease by 300% or more. Diuretics – the best drug treatment for most hypertensives – decrease your risk of dying by just 19%.

A newly published 14-year study of more than 4,700 hypertensive men and women (average age at the start of the study was 71) found that those who were given diuretics to lower their blood pressure were 19% less likely to die than those given placebos. The findings, wrote the authors, support the recommendations of the Seventh Report by the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure, published in 2003, which stated that diuretics should be considered first-line drug therapy because they are as effective as newer drugs and are much less expensive.

"But a treatment that can only reduce the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease by just 19% has hardly solved the problem," states Dr. Kenney. "Keep in mind that hypertension increases the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease by at least 300%. What this study really tells us is that taking the safest, most effective drug to lower blood pressure still means you're headed for trouble. Your risk of dying from cardiovascular disease is still at least two to three times higher than that of people whose blood pressure is 110/70 or less."

Myth: "The side effects from drugs aren't as bad as they used to be."

Truth: Drugs still increase your risk of type 2 diabetes, promote weight gain, and cause other adverse side effects, like nausea and impotence.

In the same newly completed 14-year study, hypertensives taking diuretics upped their risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 40% compared to those given placebos. Beta-blockers, another anti-hypertensive drug, not only increased the odds of getting diabetes but also promoted weight gain.

And some drugs, though they lower blood pressure to some degree, may actually increase the risk of heart attacks. New research has found that calcium channel blockers, a newer class of anti-hypertensive drugs, doubled the risk in older women of dying from heart attacks, congestive heart failure, and other major cardiovascular events compared with women taking the older, inexpensive diuretics.

And despite heavy advertising by pharmaceutical companies declaring that anti-hypertensive drugs don't have as many side effects as they used to, "many patients still struggle with very real side effects, like dry hacking coughs, increased blood sugar levels, adverse changes in cholesterol and triglyceride levels, nausea, electrolyte imbalances, dizziness, heart arrythmias, and impotence," states Dr. Kenney.

Crummy side effects are probably why, to this day, many people just let their anti-hypertensive drugs gather dust in medicine cabinets, much to the frustration of their doctors. Stated Dr. Michael Weber, a past president of the American Society of Hypertension in a Time magazine cover story on hypertension last December: "You prescribe medication, and within a year, 50% of people quit taking it."  

Myth: "Dietary measures must not work because doctors rarely prescribe them."

Truth: The right diet reduces blood pressure more than drugs and lowers the risk of diabetes, heart attacks, cancer, and stroke.

In the doctor's office, most patients get a drug prescription for their rising blood pressure, "but they ought to be getting a lifestyle prescription first," asserts Dr. Kenney.

It's a prescription that works. Several studies funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute have found that the DASH diet (Dietary Approaches To Stop Hypertension) lowers blood pressure as well as or better than any drug. DASH, similar to the Pritikin Eating Plan, promotes menus that are low in fats, salt, cholesterol, red meat, and sweets; high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and beans; and moderate in seafood, poultry, nuts, and low-fat or nonfat dairy foods.

Landmark research also compared the DASH diet with varying levels of sodium (3,300, 2,400, and 1,500mg a day) and found that the biggest reductions in blood pressure for everyone – people with hypertension as well as those with blood pressure readings as low as 120/80 – occurred in those individuals on the 1,500 mg-a-day diet.

With proper dietary intervention, blood pressure falls so dramatically, studies on the Pritikin Program have found, that many people no longer require anti-hypertensive drugs. In a newly published meta-analysis of 1,117 hypertensives who attended the Pritikin Longevity Center, systolic blood pressure fell on average 9%. Diastolic pressure fell 9%. Of those patients on hypertension drugs, 55% returned home free of their drugs. In four weeks or less, the Pritikin Program had taken blood pressure down to normal, drug-free levels.

At Pritikin, many experience for the first time the subtler, natural flavors of foods that haven't been saturated with salt. It's not an easy lesson to learn in the "real world," given the shockingly high amounts of sodium that the food and restaurant industries use. (See graph below.)

No Wonder Americans Suffer Alarming Rates of High Blood Pressure

Check out the sodium levels of various popular foods and condiments in America. Frighteningly so, these foods are daily staples of many Americans' diets.

Yes, many Americans are practically pickling themselves with salt. We've got to cut down, urge top health officials. In February 2004, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science, the scientific organization that sets the nation's standards for recommended levels of nutrients, advised that adult Americans limit their consumption of sodium to 1,200 to 1,500mg a day, depending on age. People aged 19 to 50 should consume 1,500mg or less a day; those 51 to 70, 1,300mg or less; and those over 70, 1,200mg or less.

2005 Dietary Guidelines

And the new 2005 U.S. Dietary Guidelines, issued in January by the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services, advised even healthy young Americans to lower sodium intake to less than 2,300mg daily; and "individuals with hypertension, blacks, and middle-aged and older adults should aim to consume no more than 1,500mg of sodium per day."

In February, the consumer group Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) renewed a lawsuit that would give the FDA the power to force food manufacturers to gradually lower their sodium levels. Dr. Claude Lenfant, former head of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, supported CSPI, saying, "If we could reduce the sodium in processed and restaurant foods by half, we could save about 150,000 lives per year."

So why can't the food industry shake salt? Because it's an inexpensive cure-all for many problems, including imperfect foods, reported The Wall Street Journal in a cover story on salt on February 25. And, as the food industry always insists: "Americans want a lot of salt."

Bliss Point

But "it is possible to change peoples' taste to salt," argued The Wall Street Journal, citing research from Dr. Gary Beauchamp, director of Monell Chemical Senses Center, who discovered in the 1980s that people's "bliss point" or the "just right" amount of salt could be lowered by following a strict low-sodium diet. In one five-month study, he found that college students' average daily consumption of sodium dropped about 40%.

Lifestyle Prescription

Limiting sodium to no more than 2,400mg a day would drop systolic blood pressure at least 2 to 8 points, state NHLBI guidelines to curb hypertension.  Other lifestyle measures have profound effects, too. Following a DASH-style diet drops systolic blood pressure 8 to 14 points; losing excess weight, 5 to 20 points; exercising daily, 4 to 9 points; and limiting alcohol to no more than 2 drinks a day for men and 1 drink daily for women, another 2 to 4 points.

Certainly, far better than managing the disease is never getting it in the first place. That's why lifestyle measures – begun as early as childhood – are so important. "Most Americans never would get hypertension if they followed our lifestyle recommendations," asserts Dr. Steven Havas, epidemiologist at the University of Maryland and co-author of the NHLBI report Primary Prevention of Hypertension.

Once you have hypertension, the tendency to run dangerously high blood pressure never really goes away. Like diabetes, you've got to manage it – every day. That's the sobering news. The good news – and it's really good news – is that management works.

Bottom Line

"The bottom line is that most people can control their hypertension and maintain far healthier blood pressures for years and years by following diets like Pritikin and DASH. For many, medications are not necessary," states Dr. Kenney. "Those who do still need medications usually require a lower dose and thereby reduce the risk of suffering adverse side effects."

The only side effects with the Pritikin Program are good ones – actually, priceless ones.

Like reduced cholesterol. Lower blood sugar. Reduced weight. Lower levels of inflammatory factors like C-reactive protein. Reversal of atherosclerosis. All of which add up to a markedly reduced risk of the major killers in American society – heart attacks, strokes, many cancers, and diabetes. That's right, rather than increasing the risk of diabetes, as antihypertensive drugs do, the Pritikin Program dramatically reduces risk. 

"Nothing works like Pritikin."

The benefits you can feel right now are priceless, too. For years, Steve Wylie, a leadership educator and speaker for corporations worldwide, struggled with hypertension. "My blood pressure was so high it was scary. And I was on medication!" After coming to Pritikin nine years ago, his blood pressure shot down to normal levels – without medication – and his energy level soared. "I feel fantastic!" says the globetrotting consultant for giants like ExxonMobil and Pfizer. "Nothing works like Pritikin."

Am J Cardiol, 2005; 95: 29.
JAMA, 2004; 292: 2849.
N Engl J Med, 2001; 344: 53.
J Appl Physiol, 2005; 98: 3.
Hypertension, 2003; 42:1206.
www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/prof/heart/hbp/pphbp.htm