The higher the individual's blood pressure, the greater the risk of
heart attack, stroke, heart failure, kidney disease and eye damage
(retinopathy). It is linked with 70% of strokes, affects 60.5% of patients
with kidney disease and increases the risk of vascular dementia.
Uncontrolled high blood pressure increases the risk of cardiovascular
events two- to three-fold. The report predicts significantly higher rates
of disability and death in the U.S. and around the world if efforts to
prevent and manage hypertension are not improved.

According to the American Heart Association, high blood pressure and
its complications are expected to cost the U.S. $66.4 billion in 2007. This
figure includes direct costs, such as hospital care and physician services,
and lost productivity caused by death and disability from
hypertension-related diseases. Moreover, a report by Kathryn Fitch, Kosuke
Iwasaki and Bruce Pyenson of Milliman, Inc., examined healthcare costs for
U.S. employers and found that employees with high blood pressure averaged
$619 in costs compared to $247 for those without the condition on a per
member, per month basis for a demographic adjusted population.(1)

"High blood pressure contributes to disabling conditions such as kidney
disease, stroke and cardiovascular disease, which increases demand for
long- term medical care," said report author Dr. Panos Kanavos, London
School of Economics and Political Science. "Increased public spending
required to deliver this care is likely to adversely affect governments'
fiscal balance, which in turn can have serious implications on overall
social spending."

Taking Steps to Reduce High Blood Pressure

The report advocates more systematic health policies and school-based
and community-based interventions focusing on lifestyle factors directly
linked with high blood pressure: obesity, lack of physical activity,
smoking, excessive sodium intake and over-consumption of alcohol. The
report also calls to improve the rates of early diagnosis by screening
patients for high blood pressure when they visit their physician for other
reasons.

The report also recommends assessing and potentially treating patients
with pre-hypertension. Pre-hypertension is systolic pressure of 120-139
mmHg or untreated diastolic pressure of 80-89 mmHg. According to the
American Heart Association, 37.4% of the U.S. population aged 20 years of
age or older has pre-hypertension, including 41.9 million men and 27.8
million women. The rationale for this new classification was the
accumulation of data on lifetime risk, which showed that levels of blood
pressure previously considered to be normal or high-normal are associated
with substantial risks of cardiovascular complications.

"Uncontrolled high blood pressure is a public health dilemma that
requires an urgent response on global and national levels," said Dr. Jan
Ostergren, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden, another
author of the report. "Public health officials are only now beginning to
realize that we need to do a better job of reducing cardiovascular health
risks and that controlling high blood pressure is a key strategy."