PRE-HYPERTENSION OR HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE

Pre-hypertension (or high blood pressure) is a serious condition that can trigger a heart attack or stroke. The risks begin to rise with even moderately elevated blood pressure. Two studies have found that antihypertensive medication reduces the risk of that condition will progress into hypertension. One of the studies was funded by the maker of the tested drug, and many of the authors of the other study had financial ties to drug companies. Neither trial provided evidence that the drugs reduced the risk of heart attack or stroke. Risks and benefits of using medication in this population are still largely unknown, according to Laura Svetkey, M.D., director of the Duke Hypertension Center in Durham, N.C. “Yet it’s been proved repeatedly that the way to treat pre-hypertension is with lifestyle interventions,” she says.

People with blood pressure levels of 120 to 139 millimeters of mercury (the systolic, or upper number) and/or 80 to 89 mmHg (the diastolic, or lower number.) Risk factors include being overweight or sedentary, and having a family history (a parent or sibling) of hypertension. Nineteen percent of the people with pre-hypertension develop hypertension over four years.

How to Reduce your Risk:

Lose excess weight; consume a diet rich in fruit, vegetables, and low-fat dairy products; limit your intake of saturated fat and trans fat, cut back on sodium, exercise regularly and drink moderately if at all. Keep blood pressure below 140/90 mmHg, the cutoff for hypertension. If you also have diabetes or kidney disease, lower it to 130/80 mmHg or less. If not, then one can consider adding medication if lifestyle measures are not enough.

The body mass index (BMI) a standard measure for excess pounds, doesn’t always reflect health but the term has relevance because overweight people continue to gain weight says Robert Kushner, M.D., clinical director of the Northwestern Comprehensive Center of Obesity in Chicago. When people are told by their doctors they are overweight, they are more than twice as likely to try to lose weight than their less-informed counterparts, according to a 2011 study in the Archives of Internal Medicine. People with BMIs of 25 to 29.9 are considered overweight.