New Guidelines for Blood Pressure
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High blood pressure is the number one killer worldwide. It is a silent killer, and it is largely preventable.
High blood pressure kills millions of people every year and it’s preventable
It can lead to strokes, heart disease, heart attacks, severe kidney disease, and even dementia and Alzheimer’s.
Read more on high blood pressure and dementia here: (High blood pressure in mid life tied to dementia). Bakalar, 2017
Here is what you need to know:
There are new guidelines for what is now considered high blood pressure:
High blood pressure is now 130-139 (systolic) and 80-89 (diastolic). These numbers are down from 140/90 as they have been in the past.
Under these new guidelines, 46 % of the U.S. population is now considered hypertensive.
High blood pressure is the leading cause of death worldwide and the second-leading cause of preventable death in the United States, after cigarette smoking (Contact me to help quit smoking)
What does this mean? If your blood pressure is 140/90 or higher, most likely you will need prescription medication. Some of you may know I am not a fan of prescription medication. However, high blood pressure is nothing to take lightly, and hypertensive levels are already putting you at great risk (130/80 or higher).
The good news is that if you are hypertensive, lifestyle medicine may largely help you get your numbers lower.
Lifestyle medicine includes losing weight, lowering stress levels (or managing reactions to stress – Contact me for help), quitting smoking, improving your diet (Contact me for help), consuming less alcohol, getting more excercise (Contact me for help), etc.
Normal blood pressure is 120/80. It’s important to know this to visualize success in lowering your blood pressure if you are hypertensive.
High Blood Pressure & The Risk for Alzheimer’s
“Researchers have known about the link between blood pressure and Alzheimer’s for years. In 2013, investigators showed that older people with high blood pressure, or hypertension, were more likely to have biomarkers of Alzheimer’s in their spinal fluid. Another study found that the more blood pressure varied over an eight-year period, the greater the risk of dementia.” HopkinsMedicine.Org, 2017, https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/healthy_aging/healthy_body/blood-pressure-and-alzheimers-risk-whats-the-connection
Read this article to learn how to reduce your risk for Alzheimer’s: Use lifestyle medicine to reduce risk for Alzheimer’s and dementia
“The systolic reading refers to the pressure when the heart contracts and sends blood through the arteries. Diastolic pressure is measured when the heart relaxes between beats.
The lower score is expected to triple the number of younger men considered hypertensive and double the number of younger women with high blood pressure.
Men are more likely to have high blood pressure than women and blacks are more likely than whites. Many people are unaware that they have the condition because there are no symptoms.”
Read more here: New blood pressure guidelines
How Low is Too Low of Blood Pressure?
There can be side effects to having too low of blood pressure too (something I can relate to from having CFS).
From the John Hopkins website:
“Lower is not necessarily better when it comes to blood pressure. A 2013 study published in the journal JAMA Neurology found that people with heart disease or stroke who had lower-than-normal blood pressure (in which the bottom, or diastolic, number was less than or equal to 70 mm Hg) were more likely to show changes in the brain that can affect cognition and memory.” https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/healthy_aging/healthy_body/blood-pressure-and-alzheimers-risk-whats-the-connection
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