Over 50% of Americans Have Blood Pressure Problems

Posted by: Curt | Under: General Fitness | (0) Comments

New data (well, not so new since it only goes up to 2004) shows that only 41% of adult Americans have normal blood pressure according to this article. With this being almost 2009, I am willing to bet that the numbers are far worse than that. Those are scary statistics even though a lot of headway has been made in getting people to monitor and treat their blood pressure. The problem of course goes back to the usual suspects- lack of exercise and poor diet leading to obesity and weight problems. How you get people to do something about this instead of asking the Dr. for a pill is a problem yet to be solved…

High blood pressure can lead to stroke, heart attack, heart failure or kidney failure. It is sometimes called the “silent killer” because it has no symptoms, and many people have it for years without knowing it.

Data spanning six years through 2004 showed that 29 percent of U.S. adults had high blood pressure, compared to 24 percent in the six-year period ending in 1994, the researchers said.

Another 30 percent of Americans in the most recent period had a condition called prehypertension with slightly elevated blood pressure levels that often worsens into full-fledged high blood pressure, the researchers said.

That means that only 41 percent of Americans had normal blood pressure levels, the researchers said.