Number Of Americans With High Blood Pressure Rising
According to researchers, the number of Americans with high blood pressure is rising, largely due to growing obesity rates.
Researchers from the U.S. National Institutes of Health reported that increasing numbers of Americans suffering from high blood pressure, also called hypertension, are having their condition treated.
Hypertension is often called “the silent killer” because it has no symptoms but can lead to stroke, heart attack, or heart and kidney failure.
According to researchers, the number of American adults with high blood pressure increased to 29 percent over a six year period ending in 2004. A previous six-year period ending in 1994 showed only 24 percent of American adults suffering from hypertension.
The research also showed another 30 percent of Americans in the recent period suffered from prehypertension, a condition that often worsens into full-fledged hypertension.
The results mean only 41 percent of American adults have normal blood pressure levels.
"The percentage of the population with high blood pressure is going the wrong way — it’s increasing," said Dr. Jeffrey Cutler of the NIH’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
High blood pressure is often caused by a series of factors including obesity, inactivity, smoking, and high sodium diets.
"It’s not a big surprise to the degree to which this is related to obesity. We’ve seen it coming," Cutler added.
The results of the study also showed African Americans as having higher blood pressure rates than whites.
The 1999-2004 period showed that 61 percent of those suffering from hypertension sought medical treatment for it, and 35 percent had their blood pressure under control.
The data was based on a national sampling of 16,351 U.S. adults for the 1988-1994 period and 14,430 adults for the 1999-2004 period.
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