May is High Blood Pressure Education Month

May is National High Blood Pressure Education Month. About 73 million people in the United States have high blood pressure, which is also called hypertension. High blood pressure increases the risk for heart disease and stroke, the first and third leading causes of death in the United States. Researchers estimate that high blood pressure will cost more than $73 billion in direct and indirect costs in 2009.

Have Your Blood Pressure Checked Regularly

Blood pressure is written as two numbers. The first (systolic) number represents the pressure when the heart beats. The second (diastolic) number represents the pressure when the heart rests between beats.

Persons taking hypertensive medications are considered to have high blood pressure. Blood pressure that is slightly higher than normal is called prehypertension. Persons with prehypertension are more likely to develop high blood pressure than are persons with normal blood pressure levels.

Quick Facts

Who Has High Blood Pressure

• Almost 90% of middle-aged adults will develop high blood pressure during the remainder of their lifetime.
   

• About 28% of American adults have prehypertension.
   

• Nearly one of five people with high blood pressure do not know they have it.
   

• In the United States, high blood pressure is more common among blacks than whites. About 44% of black women have high blood pressure.

Health Impact of High Blood Pressure

• High blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart disease, stroke, congestive heart failure, and kidney disease.
   

• High blood pressure was a primary or contributing cause of death for 319,000 Americans in 2005.
   

• Nearly 45 million people visited their doctor for high blood pressure in 2006.

High Blood Pressure and Salt

• A diet high in sodium (salt) increases the risk for higher blood pressure. About 77% of the sodium Americans consume comes from processed and restaurant foods.
   

• Reducing sodium levels by half in processed and restaurant foods would save about 150,000 American lives according to the American Journal of Public Health.

Preventing and Controlling High Blood Pressure

You can maintain healthy blood pressure through changing your lifestyle or by combining lifestyle changes with prescribed medications.

Key lifestyle changes include the following:

• Maintain a healthy weight.

• Be moderately physically active on most days of the week.

• Follow a healthy eating plan, which includes eating foods lower in sodium.

• Quit smoking.

• If you drink alcoholic beverages, do so in moderation.

• If you have high blood pressure and are prescribed medication, take it as directed.

The most recent recommendations for detecting and treating high blood pressure are available from the Seventh Report of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure.

Send an electronic Health-e-Card.

CDC's High Blood Pressure Efforts

Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention Program: CDC currently funds the development of effective strategies to prevent and control heart disease, stroke, and related risk factors in 41 states and the District of Columbia. The program emphasizes policy, environmental, and systems changes that promote heart-healthy and stroke-free living and working conditions. For more information, visit the CDC National Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention Program.

For More Information

Please see the following additional CDC resources:

• Application of Lower Sodium Intake Recommendations to Adults—United States, 1999–2006. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, March 27, 2009.
   
• Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention’s Sodium Web page. Reducing sodium intake improves blood pressure and lowers the risk of heart disease and stroke for everyone, even those who have normal blood pressure.
   
• Prevalence of Actions to Control High Blood Pressure—20 States, 2005.
  Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, May 4, 2007.
   
• Hypertension-Related Mortality Among Hispanic Subpopulations—United States, 1995–2002. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, February 24, 2006.
   
• Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Prevalence, Treatment, and Control of Hypertension—United States, 1999–2002. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, January 14, 2005.
   
• High Blood Pressure Fact Sheet.
   
• Pulmonary Hypertension Fact Sheet.
   
• State Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention Program Addresses High Blood Pressure.

Please visit CDC's partners for more information about high blood pressure.

• American Heart Association*
• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
• Pulmonary Hypertension Association*

 
*Links to non–Federal organizations are provided solely as a service to our users. Links do not constitute an endorsement of any organization by CDC or the Federal Government, and none should be inferred. The CDC is not responsible for the content of the individual organization Web pages found at this link.
 

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Page last reviewed: May 4, 2009
Page last modified: May 4, 2009

Content source: Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion