VOX – Hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, is a silent killer that lurks among us, helping to claim millions of lives every year.
According to a new study published in The Lancet, the number of kids under age 19 who have high blood pressure has doubled worldwide since 2000.
The rest of the population isn’t faring much better either: In the US, nearly half of Americans have hypertension — twice the rate from a generation ago.
Only about half of the people who have hypertension have it under control, a figure that has been declining over the past 10 years, even though this is among the most tractable public health problems that we have. With better monitoring, lifestyle modification, and medication, it is possible to reduce someone’s high blood pressure.
But the problem is, many of the people who have it, especially younger patients, are totally unaware.
Why hypertension is so dangerous
What is high blood pressure, exactly?
Your blood pressure measures how hard the blood pumping through your veins is pushing against the walls of your arteries, and it serves as a proxy for how hard your heart and circulatory system have to work to move blood through your body.
If you’ve ever had a physical exam or a routine check-up with your doctor, you’ve probably had your measurement taken using either a manual or automatic cuff.
The standard healthy reading is 120/80 (the top figure measures the pressure during a heartbeat, and the bottom measures the pressure during those brief moments in between heartbeats).
If both numbers fall below that standard, it is considered to be a healthy reading. Anything above that starts to have negative consequences.
First, arteries begin to harden, and organs can be damaged over time …
