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New high blood pressure guidelines - House call: expert advice on health and fitness - Brief Article
Ebony, August, 2003
Q Can you explain the new guidelines that indicate if you are in danger of having high blood pressure? Until I heard the recent report, I always thought that if you had a reading of 120/80 then, according to old standards, your blood pressure was perfect. What are the new numbers used to determine whether we are hypertensive?
J.G., New York City
A Under new guidelines, doctors say nearly 50 million Americans who thought their blood pressure was normal actually have what they now call "prehypertension."
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With the new standards, any reading under 120/80 is considered normal. For years, the 120/80 figure was the target range, but with the changes implemented by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute's National High Blood Pressure Education Program, anything between 120/80 and 139/89 is now considered "prehypertensive. Any reading between 139/89 and 159/99 is considered to be "stage 1 hypertension." And anything topping 160/100 is "stage 2 hypertension."
It's estimated that 60 million Americans have high blood pressure, a major contributor to cardiovascular disease--the No. 1 killer of men and women.
There are several classes of drugs that are used to treat hypertension, but according to some doctors, African-Americans have better results with diuretics and calcium blockers.
COPYRIGHT 2003 Johnson Publishing Co.
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