They found that for every 10 mm increase in systolic blood pressure, the risk of calcium deposits and cardiovascular events rose accordingly. The research team focused on increases in systolic blood pressure with age, adjusting the data for changes in other heart risks.
As the participants aged, their risk factors for heart disease increased, along with calcium deposits in their coronary arteries and cardiovascular events like heart attacks and strokes.
#AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION BLOOD PRESSURE CHART FREE#
Whelton, cardiologist and epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease in Baltimore, followed a cohort of 1,457 middle-aged men and women initially free of atherosclerotic vascular disease and known risk factors for 14.5 years. Rather, it seems, the increase in blood pressure most common among Americans as they age into mid- and late adulthood is an artifact of our sedentary lifestyles and diets too rich in calories and high in sodium, all of which result in stiff, narrowed arteries that result in high blood pressure. Unlike typical Americans, their blood pressure does not rise with age. Heart experts have long known that people in traditional nonindustrial societies typically maintain systolic blood pressures in the low 90s throughout life. But why resort to pills, including drugs with unwanted side effects, to modify risks that are within the personal control of most people?Īnd as shown in the study, even levels of blood pressure that are generally considered “normal” may indeed be high enough to foster the development of atherosclerotic heart disease by more than fourfold above the risk faced by people with systolic blood pressures that are physiologically ideal. Yes, there are medications to treat both conditions. For example, as Americans get fatter and fatter, two major risk factors for heart disease - Type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure - rise along with readings on bathroom scales.
If not for a plethora of therapeutic advances, like antihypertensive drugs, cholesterol-lowering statins and open-heart surgery to bypass clogged arteries, life expectancy would be a lot worse for many people.īut the overall picture suggests we’ve still got a long way to go. Since my first weeks writing for this newspaper in the early 1960s, I’ve publicized their advice urging people to curb preventable risks to their hearts and blood vessels.Īlthough significant progress has been made along several fronts, especially drastic cuts in cigarette smoking and lowered levels of artery-damaging cholesterol, atherosclerotic heart disease still kills far too many people in this country long before they reach their potential life span. Starting in the 1940s, cardiovascular researchers have unveiled evidence that Americans live in a society that all but guarantees a disproportionately high risk of developing and dying of heart disease. The new findings suggest a need to look more carefully at why, despite considerable overall improvements in risk factors for heart disease in recent decades, it remains the nation’s leading killer. Systolic blood pressure represents the pressure within arteries when the heart pumps (as opposed to diastolic blood pressure, the lower smaller number, when the heart rests). The study, published in June in JAMA Cardiology, found that as systolic blood pressure rose above 90 mm, the risk of damage to coronary arteries rose along with it. The latest iteration of an “ideal” blood pressure - a level of 120 millimeters of mercury for systolic pressure, the top number - that Americans are urged to achieve and maintain has been called into question by a long-term multiethnic study of otherwise healthy adults. So you think your blood pressure is normal? Think again.