High blood pressure is often a silent condition, discovered by a routine check. Grade-one high blood pressure is over 140/90, and 20-30% of people with it don’t know they’ve got it. What this study shows is that young people with blood pressure at the high end of the normal range increase their risk of heart damage 25 years later. The study showed that, in this group, the left ventricle had to work harder to generate the movement to push blood out of the heart round the body. This structural change in the heart chamber is one step along the way to the ventricle getting bigger and stiffer. High blood pressure has no upsides. It can causes heart attacks, heart and/or kidney failure, strokes and dementia. So should you take more care of yourself from an earlier age?
The solution
The study did not follow people through to see if they actually had the strokes and heart attacks that seemingly loomed over them: it didn’t have what doctors call clinical endpoints. But Dr Sadia Khan, a consultant cardiologist at West Middlesex hospital, says that it confirms what doctors have been saying for some time. “The choices that people make now will have a big influence on their future wellbeing,” she says. The traditional view that the effects of high blood pressure only occur when you’re older is now debunked.
This doesn’t mean that young people with higher but still normal blood pressures need tablets – they don’t. What it means is that all of us (including children) should do what Nice recommends – exercise, reduce salt intake, maintain an ideal weight for your height and eat healthily. Alcohol can raise blood pressure and should be drunk in moderation. Don’t wait until middle age, when some damage is already done, to start trying to reduce your risk.
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