Got hypertension? Millions of Americans can slash stroke and dementia risk. Here’s how. : Shots

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At the age of 40, more than half of Americans have high blood pressure, but many are not aware of it. Hypertension has been known for a long time as the silent killer. When it is not treated, it can be fatal. And it is considered a silent threat because most people have no symptoms. You cannot feel the pressure in your blood vessels increase.

New recommendations from the American Heart Association are aimed at early treatment, including lifestyle changes and medicines, once systolic blood pressure exceeds 130/80 mm Hg (which represents millimeters of mercury, pressure measurement). Experts say it is clear that the sooner you work, the more you can protect yourself.

Hypertension is a main cause of heart disease, which is cause 1 of death of men and women in the United States, high blood pressure also increases the risk of kidney disease and dementia. And, research shows that hypertension can cause damage to small blood vessels in the brain, which is linked to cognitive decline.

“There is a very great preventive health opportunity in the treatment of hypertension earlier,” said Dr. Jordana Cohen, nephrologist and hypertension specialist at the University of Pennsylvania. She says millions of adults in the United States could benefit from medicines and lifestyle changes.

“If you catch it early and treat it early, you can end up with many years of healthy life expectancy,” said Cohen, highlighting a reduced risk of heart attacks, strokes, kidney damage and dementia.

The new guidelines indicate that advice prior to decades on the advantages of a low sodium diet, which can be difficult to follow, given more than half of the calories consumed in the United States come from ultra-transformed foods, which tend to be rich in salt.

The new guidelines also highlight the lifestyle strategies, in particular exercise, the limitation of alcohol consumption and the reduction of stress in the form of meditation, yoga or deep breathing. For people with systolic blood pressure (the upper number) in the 130s, the recommendation is to start with these changes in diet and lifestyle, then switch to drugs if the blood pressure does not improve.

For people who reach the risky beach of a systolic blood pressure of 140 or more, which is considered to be high -level hypertension, evidence shows that hypertension drugs are beneficial.

“For all people with blood pressure of more than 140/90, MM HG, we recommend that you start with two drugs,” Dan Dan Jones, chairman of the Heart Association guidelines, told NPR. Research shows that a drug alone is often not enough to lower blood pressure to the optimal beach, he says.

Jones says that even when people are aware that they are suffering from hypertension, more than half manage to lower it to the normal beach, which is 120/80 mm Hg or lower. Some of the challenges include the side effects of drugs and individual differences in the functioning of the drug, as well as a reluctance to take medication among some people. In addition, some people have trouble daily obstacles to make lifestyle changes. Jones stresses that health care providers also use a risk calculator to estimate the individual risk of a person’s heart disease, as part of a treatment plan.

When George Salomon was informed of the risk of high blood pressure, he hesitated to take medication. “I felt good,” he said. Then, at 63, he had a stroke.

Solomon had withdrawn from a career in the application of laws and had settled in a new routine, taking time for the exercise and the pastime, such as the wooden division on his farm. One day in the spring of 2023, he began to feel left.

“I went upstairs to watch television, and when I sat on the chair, I couldn’t get up. I had a feeling that went on my back,” he recalls and he lost the feeling in his arm and his leg. An ambulance took him to the Duke university hospital near his home, where he underwent treatment and rehabilitation for a stroke.

He estimates that he is now about 80% and returned to the exercise and working on his farm. He now realizes that he needs healthy lifestyles and drugs to prevent another stroke.

“I think I’m on the right track,” he said. He has lost weight and he is more cardio and strength training. He shares his story in the hope that this encourages others to act.

Drugs: what’s going on, what is coming

There are several types of drugs used to treat hypertension. They include diuretics that help the body get rid of additional salt and water, ECA inhibitors who help block the production of a hormone called angiotensin II and help relax blood vessels and calcium channel blockers that slow down calcium movement in cells, which can help reduce pressure.

But many people suffering from hypertension do not have enough reduction with current drugs, and Cohen of the University of Pennsylvania says that there is a lot of interest in a new class of drugs that works by targeting hormonal aldosterone, which helps regulate liquid and sodium in the body. Too many hormones is a cause of high blood pressure. The drug is not yet on the market, but the new results of the study could open the way to a new treatment option.

“In hypertension, we have not seen anything effective since the 90s,” said Cohen. Another tool in the toolbox for treatment could be beneficial, she says.

A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine has revealed that the aldosterone blocking medication, known as Baxdrostat, has been effective in reducing blood pressure in many people who find it difficult to control their hypertension.

The study included around 800 people who, despite taking two or three drugs, still had not lowered their blood pressure to the normal beach. “What we have seen is that after 12 weeks of treatment, there was about an improvement of ten points of blood pressure in patients treated with Baxdrostat, on the placebo effect, Dr. Jennifer Brown, cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, who is one of the researchers behind the study, told NPR. plans to share your data with regular authorities at the entrance to the year.

A 10 -point drop in systolic blood pressure is linked to a reduction of approximately 20% of the risk of heart attacks and cerebral vascular accidents, as well as a reduced risk of dementia.