Baby boomers and blood pressure

Baby boomers and blood pressure

There is some alarming data about baby boomers and blood pressure. Some 50 % of baby boomers age 54-64 have high blood pressure, and 40 % of them are obese (CDC report on health in the US, December 8/05).

Is it about your birth date or your waistline?

For my current research project about baby boomers and blood pressure as a risk factor for heart disease and metabolic syndrome

I measure blood pressure and waistline circumference on a daily basis and I am amazed how little people know about the connection between them. When I say �your blood pressure is normal� they often ask me what exactly that means in numbers. I am also amazed how many boomers are reluctant to take medications and ask me if there is an alternative way to normalize blood pressure.

The good news for baby boomers and blood pressure is that there are several things one can do to prevent blood pressure from going up, and there are ways to lower blood pressure along with medication prescribed by a physician. Here are the questions I hear the most:

What is blood pressure about?

Picture this: The heart pumps blood in the arteries. The blood pressure is determined by the amount of blood pumped and the force applied by the heart to pump it.

Now imagine that the arteries are like pipes. If the pipes are rigid (like when you have cholesterol plaques built inside the arteries), the pressure would be higher than if the pipes (aka arteries) are flexible.

When the volume of the blood is bigger (this happens when you eat a great amount of salt), the heart has to pump a bigger amount, which requires a bigger force. As a result the blood pressure goes up.

What is normal and what is high blood pressure?

In May, 2003, the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation and Treatment of High Blood Pressure (JNC) defined the following categories for blood pressure, based on extensive reviews of scientific literature. Here are the numbers and I will explain what they mean:

Normal blood pressure numbers:

Systolic < 120 mm Hg; Diastolic< 80 mm Hg

Prehypertensive:

Systolic > 120-139 mm Hg; Diastolic > 80-89mm Hg

High blood pressure numbers (hypertension): 2 stages

Mild hypertension (stage 1):

Systolic 140- 159 mm Hg; Diastolic 90-99 mm Hg

Moderate to severe hypertension (stage 2):

Systolic > 160 mm Hg; Diastolic > 100 mm Hg

Baby boomers and blood pressure: meaning of the numbers:

Two numbers describe blood pressure.

The first number is called systolic pressure, and the second (lower) one is called diastolic pressure. Blood pressure is measured in millimeters of mercury (mm Hg).

High systolic pressure is a risk factor for heart, kidney, and circulatory complications in any age but particularly in middle-aged adults (which makes baby boomers a particularly vulnerable age group).

Here are the most important things about baby boomers and blood pressure. You must pay attention:

1) High systolic pressure can lead to a stroke even if the diastolic pressure is normal.

2) High diastolic pressure is a strong predictor of heart attack and stroke.

Are there any particular factors that influence blood pressure?

What about your birth date? Age is officially considered the most important factor for both men and women with higher mortality rate among women. A staggering 75 % of American baby boomers over 60 have high blood pressure. This said, be aware of baby boomers and blood pressure! This is the time to do something to prevent heart attack or stroke from happening to you.

I personally am not fully convinced that age per se is a decisive factor. I see boomers� age as more of a period when all other factors of unhealthy life style start showing up because the body can no longer compensate for the damage done.

The highest prevalence of high blood pressure in the world is among African Americans. About 34% of African American men and women have high blood pressure compared to Hispanic Americans, Caucasians, and Native Americans who are in about an equivalent range (24% to 27%).

I do believe though that the over all obesity, and abdominal obesity in particular, is the risk factor for developing high blood pressure. About one-third of patients with high blood pressure are overweight. Even moderately obese people have higher risk of high blood pressure compared to people with normal weight.