The American Heart Association, the American College of Cardiology and nine other heart health groups agree that you have high blood pressure if your blood pressure is above 130\/80, not 140\/90 as the previous guidelines recommended (American Heart Association’s annual meeting, November 13, 2017). This means that 46 percent of North American adults now have high blood pressure which means that they are at increased risk for heart attacks, strokes, diabetes and premature death. The new guidelines will triple the number of men under 45 years of age with high blood pressure, and double the number of women under 45 with high blood pressure. Another 40 percent of the population will develop high blood pressure as they grow older.<\/p>\n
The blockbuster SPRINT study of almost 10,000 people showed that blood pressures above 130 increase risk for death (N Engl J Med<\/em>, Nov 26, 2015;373:2103-2116). High blood pressure causes heart attacks, strokes, and kidney disease and puts you at increased risk for developing dementia in later life. High blood pressure is intimately associated with high blood sugar levels after meals, and high blood pressure is one of the criteria for diagnosing diabetes.<\/p>\n Lowering Blood Pressure without Drugs<\/strong> Checking Your Own Blood Pressure<\/strong> Who Should Take Drugs for High Blood Pressure?<\/strong> Checked 5\/19\/23<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The American Heart Association, the American College of Cardiology and nine other heart health groups now agree that you have high blood pressure if your blood pressure is above 130\/80, not 140\/90 as the previous guidelines recommended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1025,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-heart"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThe majority of people with blood pressures between 120 and 140 have the potential to lower their high blood pressures without taking drugs. If they are sufficiently motivated, they can probably get their blood pressures to normal with lifestyle changes:
\n\u2022 getting rid of their excess belly fat
\n\u2022 losing excess weight
\n\u2022 exercising daily and growing larger muscles
\n\u2022 avoiding alcohol and smoke
\n\u2022 eating a high-plant diet with lots of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, nuts and other seeds
\n\u2022 limiting or avoiding sugar-added foods and drinks, meat from mammals, processed meats and fried foods
\n\u2022 limiting salt intake
\n\u2022 drinking only water, coffee or tea, with nothing added to them
\n\u2022 keeping blood levels of hydroxy vitamin D above 30 ng\/mL
\nLosing just 10 pounds can reduce systolic high blood pressure by 5 mm of mercury.
\nMost people who cannot get their systolic blood pressures below 130 with these lifestyle changes will probably be advised to take drugs.<\/p>\n
\nNever let your doctor use a single blood pressure measurement to diagnose high blood pressure. Your blood pressure can rise just because you are in the doctor’s office. It can also rise when you eat, exercise or move around, or when you are startled or afraid. I recommend that everyone should have their own arm blood pressure cuff (wrist cuffs are not very dependable). They are inexpensive and are available at any pharmacy. Every night for at least a week, take your blood pressure when you are ready to go to bed and have been resting for 10-15 minutes. That is when your blood pressure is usually lowest. Keep a record of the readings and take the average after a week. If your systolic blood pressure averages greater than 120, you have high blood pressure and need serious lifestyle changes immediately. Check with your doctor.<\/p>\n
\nPeople who have high blood pressure plus two or more of heart attack risk factors listed below will probably be advised to take blood-pressure-lowering drugs. Your doctor can examine you and order all of these tests:
\n\u2022 LDL (bad) cholesterol>100
\n\u2022 HBA1C>5.7 (diabetes)
\n\u2022 CRP>1 (inflammation)
\n\u2022 Abdominal obesity
\n\u2022 Small hips
\n\u2022 Resting heart rate >70
\n\u2022 Lp(a)>125 (blood test for a genetic disorder)
\n\u2022 Triglycerides >150 (primarily from dietary sugar)
\n\u2022 HDL (good) cholesterol<40
\n\u2022 Homocysteine>10 (genetic or vitamin deficiency)
\n\u2022 Small LDL particle size (an indicator of diabetes)
\n\u2022 Family history of heart attacks
\nSee my report on Heart Attack Prevention<\/a><\/p>\n