Hypertension and Prehypertension

Risks from untreated high blood pressure include increasing the workload for your heart, hardening the walls of the arteries, increasing the risk for heart disease and stroke, and causing heart failure, kidney disease, and blindness. It is a major health concern, since even Americans with normal blood pressure at age 55 face a 90% chance of developing high blood pressure during their lifetimes. Today, 31% of all adult Americans have high blood pressure, and 25% have prehypertension. And we are seeing alarming increases in obesity-related childhood blood pressure. Although most Americans will develop high blood pressure with age, people in many areas of the world do not see their blood pressure increase with age, and high blood pressure is not associated with healthy aging.

For most people, high blood pressure can be controlled with diet, weight loss, exercise, and other lifestyle changes, especially if caught early.

Current definitions of hypertension and prehypertension are shown below.

Hypertension

Systolic blood pressure greater than or equal to 140 and/or diastolic blood pressure greater than or equal to 90, or on medication for hypertension.

Prehypertension

Systolic blood pressure greater than or equal to 120 and/or diastolic blood pressure greater than or equal to 80. This is a new category that reflects concern about increased risk of developing heart disease even with mildly elevated blood pressure.

Metabolic syndrome

Metabolic syndrome is defined as having 3 or more of the following: carrying extra weight around the waist, high blood pressure, low HDL cholesterol, high triglycerides, and/or elevated blood sugar. For more information and specific description, go to our page on metabolic syndrome. This is also known as syndrome X, or dysmetabolic syndrome.

Make an appointment

Click here to set up an appointment.

Resources

People with high blood pressure may benefit from following the DASH diet which helps to lower blood pressure. This diet is rich in fruits, vegetables, and low-fat and nonfat dairy. This is the doctor recommended diet to help lower blood pressure.

• DASHdiet.org for information on the DASH diet and on a new book which will help people implement the DASH diet. Order the book today, click here to learn more.





• National Heart, Lung, & Blood Institute,. Your guide to lowering high blood pressure.
• More info on childhood blood pressure issues, at the NHLBI.