Blood pressure: high risk despite good values
All content is checked by medical journalists.Those who have properly controlled their high blood pressure with medication take the strain off the heart and blood vessels considerably. Nevertheless, those who have been successfully treated should not feel too safe. Because compared to people who always had healthy values, their risk of a heart attack is still significantly higher. A healthy lifestyle is therefore still important.
In the long run, high blood pressure damages various organs, but above all the blood vessels. It promotes the formation of arteriosclerosis - the main cause of cardiovascular diseases such as stroke and heart attack. The damage occurs gradually over a longer period of time. But the problem is often only recognized when the vessels are already sick and deposits have formed.
At best, medication prevents atherosclerosis from getting worse - or preventing it from progressing less quickly. But even antihypertensive drugs cannot reverse plaque build-up in the arteries.
The danger is not over
Researchers from Northwestern University have examined how high the risk actually is despite well-set values. "Even patients who achieved ideal levels with the help of medication were still almost twice as likely to develop cardiovascular disease as people who had always had healthy blood pressure," says Donald Lloyed-Jones, the study's senior author. Using medication to reduce the risk as much as if one had never had high blood pressure is apparently not possible. Values of less than 120/80 mmHg are ideal.
Drugs remain an important treatment option for people with high blood pressure in order to reduce their risk again, according to the researchers. However, the study shows how important it is to prevent the disease at a young age.
Focus on lifestyle
"More focus on a healthy lifestyle is the best way to prevent high blood pressure," says Lloyed-Jones. These include the well-known factors such as a balanced diet with plenty of fruit and vegetables, healthy fats and a low salt consumption. In addition, regular physical activity and giving up cigarettes.
The scientists had evaluated the data from almost 9,000 participants who were over 50 years old at the start of the study. The researchers then tracked their health careers for an average of 9.5 years.
In Germany every third adult suffers from high blood pressure. This was the result of the study on adult health in Germany (DEGS1) carried out by the Robert Koch Institute. This means that high blood pressure affects around 20 million people in this country. (cf)
Source: Kiang Liu et al .: Can Antihypertensive Treatment Restore the Risk of Cardiovascular Disease to Ideal Levels ?: The Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) Study and the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) J Am Heart Assoc. 2015; 4: e002275 originally published September 21, 2015 doi: 10.1161 / JAHA.115.002275
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