Deaths from high blood pressure (hypertension) are increasing, according to a new report from the American Heart Association (AHA). Cardiovascular disease is still the biggest killer in the United States, although deaths decreased by almost a third from 2001 to 2011. The AHA attributes those statistics to improvements in treating heart disease and stroke.
However, there is more than a a 13 percent increase in hypertension-related deaths over that two-year period.
“Deaths attributable to cardiovascular diseases have been on the decline in recent decades. Yet in the face of this good news, we have several disturbing observations that we need to pay attention to because we’re at risk of eroding the gains we have made,” says AHA President Elliott Antman, M.D., professor of medicine and associate dean at Harvard Medical School and a senior physician in the cardiovascular division of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. His comments were made in a news release.
Hypertension, if untreated, can lead to heart disease and stroke. Although the death rate going up for hypertension while going down for heart disease and stroke may seem contradictory, hypertension can still lead to other deadly conditions such as heart failure or kidney failure if it is not controlled.
“Patients do not always take their blood pressure medications as prescribed, and even if they do, doctor’s orders sometimes are not enough,” says Willie E. Lawrence Jr., M.D., chief of cardiology at Research Medical Center in Kansas City, MO. “I think people with hypertension are often undertreated. It usually takes more than one medication to get blood pressure under control.”
The hypertension report did find that most cases have been detected—nearly 83 percent. But 80 million Americans with high blood pressure, and only about half have it under control.
“Awareness is not enough. We have to begin to adequately treat hypertension,” Lawrence says. “We can’t get there by treating coronary artery disease alone.”
The AHA predicts that just a 10 percent increase in hypertension treatment could prevent about 14,000 deaths every year in its report. For most people, the recommendation is to treat a blood pressure reading of 140/90 or higher. Research shows that lowering blood pressure by just five points can reduce the overall risk of death from any cause by seven percent.
Antman says the rising hypertension death rate may also be attributable to lack of physical activity, obesity and too much sodium – which are practices followed by too many Americans.
The most recent statistics indicate more work is needed to get the word out about the importance of keeping blood pressure at a normal level.
“The sky isn’t falling,” Antman said. “There are clouds in the sky, and there are things the AHA is doing to chase them away.”
Credit : Dr. Vikas Dua (Bone Marrow Transplant Specialist, Hematologist, Hemato Oncologist- 13 Years of Experience)
