{"id":32966,"date":"2023-02-19T19:06:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-19T19:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=32966"},"modified":"2023-02-19T19:11:49","modified_gmt":"2023-02-19T19:11:49","slug":"many-americans-wrongly-assume-they-understand-what-normal-blood-pressure-is-and-that-false-confidence-can-be-deadly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/many-americans-wrongly-assume-they-understand-what-normal-blood-pressure-is-and-that-false-confidence-can-be-deadly\/","title":{"rendered":"Many Americans wrongly assume they understand what normal blood pressure is \u2013 and that false confidence can be\u00a0deadly"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

W\u00e4ndi Bruine de Bruin<\/a>, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences<\/a><\/em> and Mark Huffman<\/a>, Washington University in St Louis<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stunning as it may sound, nearly half of Americans ages 20 years and up \u2013 or more than 122 million people \u2013 have high blood pressure, according to a 2023 report from the American Heart Association<\/a>. And even if your numbers are normal right now, they are likely to increase as you age<\/a>; more than three-quarters of Americans age 65 and older have high blood pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also known as hypertension, high blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our research has found that most Americans don\u2019t know the normal or healthy range for blood pressure \u2013 yet strikingly, they think they do. And that is cause for serious concern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are a health communications expert<\/a> and a cardiologist<\/a>. Together with our<\/a> health communication collaborators<\/a>, we surveyed more than 6,500 Americans about their knowledge of blood pressure. They were recruited through the Understanding America Study<\/a>, a nationally representative sample of U.S. residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our new study, published in January 2023, we found that 64% expressed confidence in their understanding of blood pressure numbers<\/a> \u2013 but only 39% actually knew what normal or healthy blood pressure is. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cqLZhO06yeE?wmode=transparent&start=0 A healthy diet, more exercise and less salt and alcohol are all ways to improve your blood pressure numbers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

False confidence, deadly consequences<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Such false confidence can be harmful because it may prevent people from seeking care for high blood pressure. After all, if you think it\u2019s normal, why bother talking to your doctor about your blood pressure?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part of the reason for this overconfidence begins in the doctor\u2019s office. Typically, a nurse brings over a blood pressure cuff, straps it on your upper arm and takes a reading. The nurse may announce the result, remove the cuff and record it for the doctor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the doctor arrives, the session may well move on to other matters without a word about the blood pressure reading. This likely happens because your doctor wants to focus on how you\u2019re feeling and why you\u2019re there. But as a result, you may leave your appointment thinking your blood pressure is fine, even if it\u2019s not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About 70% of Americans will have high blood pressure in their lifetimes<\/a>. What\u2019s more, only 1 in 4 patients with hypertension have their blood pressure under control<\/a>. And because high blood pressure usually has no symptoms, you can have it without knowing it<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To lower your risk of heart attacks and strokes, it\u2019s critical to understand your blood pressure readings. This is especially true for patients with conditions such as heart disease, kidney disease and diabetes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What the numbers mean<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Blood pressure is reported with two numbers<\/a>. The first number is your systolic blood pressure<\/a>; it measures the pressure in arteries when the heart beats. The second number, your diastolic blood pressure<\/a>, measures the pressure in your arteries between heartbeats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Normal or healthy blood pressure<\/a> is less than 120\/80 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg) for adults. This is a unit of measurement that stems from early blood pressure monitors, which looked at how far your blood pressure could push a column of liquid mercury. For most patients, lower tends to be better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stage 1 hypertension, which is the lower stage of high blood pressure, begins at 130\/80. Stage 2 hypertension, which is the more severe stage of high blood pressure, begins at 140\/90. Both numbers are critically important, because every increase of 20 millimeters of mercury in systolic blood pressure, or 10 in diastolic blood pressure, doubles a person\u2019s chances of dying from a heart attack or stroke<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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