Nearly 1 in 3 adults in the United States with untreated high blood pressure would benefit from treatment and are not getting it, according to a new study.
That’s because nearly 10 million Americans now meet newly updated guidelines by the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology that redefine an adult’s risk for cardiovascular disease.
“We estimated that approximately 200,900 all-cause deaths and 162,600 cardiovascular deaths could be prevented over the next 10 years,” said lead study author Dr. Mustafa Al-Jarshawi, a cardiologist at Keele University in England.
Ideally, doctors want blood pressure to fall below 120 mmHg systolic and 80 mmHg diastolic. If blood pressure is around 130/80, doctors have typically advised people to make changes to their lifestyle, such as increasing exercise.
If doctors use the American Heart Association’s new PREVENT tool, which considers blood sugar, kidney function and a person’s decade-long risk for heart disease as well as blood pressure, some 81 million Americans would be eligible for blood pressure medications.
