Importance of blood pressure

Key blood pressure points:

1. High blood pressure is deadly. High Blood Pressure is the major silent killer as a substantial cause of the leading killers of heart attacks, congestive heart failure, strokes, and kidney failure. Reducing moderate hypertension with some fairly old medications in the VA cooperative studies reduced “terminating morbid events” in men averaging 53.6 years of age from 36 to 6% over a 5-year period .
2. It’s also associated with long-term aging. To determine the risk of cognitive decline, early adult cardiac risk factors (CVRF) have been analyzed to determine their association with late-life decline in global cognition. 

Research if you want more details

Data from early adult, mid-life, and late-life time periods were collected and analyzed for their association with late-life cognitive decline, measured by (Modified Mini-Mental State Exam (3MS), and processing speed (Digit Symbol Substitution Test (DSST). Adjustments were made for demographics, education, and cohort.

Elevated BMI, FG, and SBP (but not TC) at each time period were associated with greater late-life decline. Early-life CVRFs were associated with the greatest decline, an approximate doubling of mean 10-year decline (an additional 3-4 points for 3MS or DSST). Specifically, early-adult SBP (SBP >140 mmHg), was associated with 4 points greater decline on DSST in late-life (10-year change in DSST: -4.44 points, 95%CI [-7.88, -0.99]). – C Kristine Yaffe, MD; Eric Vittinghoff, PhD; Tina Hoang, MSPH; Karen Matthews, PhD5; Sherita H Golden, MD, MHS; Adina Zeki Al Hazzouri, PhD Cardiovascular Risk Factors Across the Life Course and Cognitive Decline: A Pooled Cohort Study Neurology. 2021 Mar 17:10.1212/WNL.

There’s a correlation with lower cancer rates when BP is under control. In data on risk of cancer that examined over 20,000 people followed for over 15 years, factors that protect against heart disease, including blood pressure control as one of the five factors, cut their risk of cancer by about 70%. Conversely, people who had major risk factors for heart disease at the study’s start — including high blood pressure, diabetes, high LDL cholesterol and smoking, were over three times more likely to develop cancer compared to people with a low heart attack risk.  – Lau ES, Paniagua SM, Liu E, Jovani M, Li SX, Takvorian K, Suthahar N, Cheng S, Splansky GL, Januzzi Jr JL, Wang TJ. Cardiovascular risk factors are associated with future cancer. Cardio Oncology. 2021;3:48-58

Reduce BP, increase your quality of life. Randomized controlled trials show that controlling blood pressure at all ages, even after age 80 substantially reduces all-cause mortality , strokes, heart attacks, kidney dysfunction, cognitive dysfunction, and immobility

1. As you age, the risk gets higher. The prevalence of high BP increases substantially with age—whether due to lifestyle changes such as less physical activity or just low-grade inflammatory effects on arteries. For adults 45 years of age without hypertension, the 40-year risk of developing hypertension was 93% for African-American, 92% for Hispanic, 86% for white, and 84% for Chinese adults