High blood pressure (hypertension)

The next time you are in a group of people, look around. Pick out three of those individuals and statistically, one of those three people has high blood pressure.  That means 67 million (one third) Americans have high blood pressure.  Of that 67 million people, only half of them (36 million) are being treated for their high blood pressure.  These numbers make high blood pressure the “number two public health enemy” by officials at the Centers for Disease Control. 

 What is high blood pressure (hypertension)? Blood pressure numbers involve the pressure inside your arteries when your heart has contracted and squeezed the blood into the artery (that’s the top number) and when your heart is at rest (that’s the bottom number).  The top number (let’s use 120/80 as an example of a blood pressure) 120 is the systolic pressure and this number reflects the pressure inside your blood vessels when you heart pumps blood out to the body.  The bottom number (80) is called diastolic blood pressure.  It shows the pressure inside your blood vessels when your heart is resting. In the past a “normal” blood pressure was 120/80. There has been talk about lowering that ideal blood pressure number to 110/70. I noticed at my annual wellness meeting, the ideal blood pressure number is listed as 110/70. Doctors talk about high blood pressure (called hypertension) when your blood pressure numbers are higher than 120/80.

More about high blood pressure next time.