Re: Blood Pressure Rates on Rise in U.S. Study Finds

From: Jon (jstubley_at_aol.com)
Date: 08/31/04 

Date: 31 Aug 2004 03:49:11 -0700

rbystrianyk@gmail.com (Roman Bystrianyk) wrote in message news:<4f28e591.0408231510.e1322b6@posting.google.com>...
> http://www.healthsentinel.com/news.php?event=news_print_list_item&id=149
>
> Maggie Fox, "Blood Pressure Rates on Rise in U.S. Study Finds",
> Reuters, August 23, 2004,
> Link: http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=6048134
>
> More Americans than ever have high blood pressure and the number has
> risen by nearly a third over the past decade, researchers reported on
> Monday.
>
> The usual suspects are to blame -- aging, obesity, a lack of exercise
> and too much junk food, the U.S. government research team found.
>
> At least 65 million Americans have hypertension, defined as blood
> pressure of 140/90 or more, a medical diagnosis of high blood pressure
> or the use of drugs to lower blood pressure. This equals nearly a
> third of U.S. adults, the researchers said.
>
> They found the number of adults with high blood pressure increased by
> 30 percent from 1988 to 2000.
>
> Writing in the American Heart Association journal Hypertension, the
> researchers said they analyzed data from the U.S. Census Bureau and
> the 1999-2000 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which
> included 4,531 adults.
>
> "High blood pressure is a major risk factor for coronary heart
> disease, kidney failure, heart failure, stroke and other conditions,"
> said Dr. Larry Fields of the Department of Health and Human Services,
> who led the study.
>
> Blood pressure clearly rises with age and is equally prevalent in
> women and men. Blacks have a higher risk than other groups.
>
> "It has been demonstrated that interventions that center on health
> behavior, such as getting regular physical activity, controlling
> weight, and eating a nutritious diet that includes lots of fruits and
> vegetables and moderate amounts of salt, can reduce a person's chances
> of developing high blood pressure," said Fields, currently an
> associate professor of medicine at Washington University in St. Louis.
>
> "The hypertension trend is not unexpected given the increase in
> obesity and an aging population," said Dr. Barbara Alving, Acting
> Director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
>
> "This is not healthy aging!"
>
> But she noted that Americans are beginning to develop high blood
> pressure at ever-younger ages.
>
> A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association
> found blood pressure steadily rising among U.S. children.
>
> Researchers universally agree that regular exercise and a healthy diet
> rich in fruits, vegetables and whole grains and low in processed foods
> are the first steps to reducing high blood pressure or the risk of
> developing it. Drugs can also lower blood pressure.

I am very interested in this, because I visited the doctors recently
for something unrelated to BP, but she took it anyway and announced
that it was 156/92 which is pretty high, and I must have regular
checks, no salt, no alcohol, no processed high calorie foods, etc etc.
My immediate response (after a short spell of acute depression) was to
purchase an electronic BP measuring instrument, and to take several
readings per day for myself. I am assuming that my machine is not too
inaccurate and I try to follow the instructions as close as possible
(have the cuff an inch above my elbow etc) but I have not yet recorded
a level as high as that. However, I have found that my BP varies
greatly through the day and seems to be about 130/70 when I am sitting
and relaxing. I just wonder how much of the statistics are derived
from people who only have increased BP because they are visiting the
doctors surgery?
And how exactly do fruit and vegetables lower BP? And do all fruit&veg
have the same lowering effect, or are some better than others?

One thing that I have 'experimented' with is alcohol, and I can say
that the main effect of drinking 5 glasses of beer was that my BP
dropped to 115/55. I was so shocked that I had to take the reading 3
times. However, the sting comes in the tail, as the following morning
feeling a mild hangover I was up to 152/88 and this persisted for some
time through the day.

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