How high is high?

Nutrition Action Healthletter, July-August, 2003

For years, experts defined hypertension, or high blood pressure, as 140 over 90 or higher, even though the risk of heart disease and stroke starts to climb at lower levels, which were mistakenly called "normal." No longer.

Normal blood pressure is less than 120 over less than 80, according to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Systolic pressure of 120 to 1 39 or diastolic pressure of 80 to 89 is now called "prehypertension."

What to do: Don't assume that your blood pressure is normal just because it used to be. Get it checked, and do what you can to lower it. That means lose excess weight, exercise for at least three hours a week, consume no more than 2,400 mg of sodium per day, limit alcoholic drinks to one (for women) or two (for men) per day, and eat a diet that's low in saturated fat and high in fruits and vegetables (eight to ten servings a day) and low-fat dairy foods (two or three servings a day). (See "Curtains for Heart Disease?" May 2003, p. 6.)

J. Amer. Med. Assoc. 289: 2560, 2003 and 289: 2083, 2131, 2003.