One-third of US adults suffer from high BP
The new CDC report released Tuesday, ahead of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly report, stated that one out of every three adults American has high blood pressure, and in half of the cases it is not under control.
The data available suggests that more than 100 million Americans have high blood pressure or high levels of cholesterol or even both. This is a serious health problem and costs the country $300 billion annually in direct medical costs.
That comes to $1 out of every $6 spent on health care. This number is expected to triple in the coming twenty years, CDC director, Dr. Thomas R. Frieden said.
The bottom line is, high blood pressure and cholesterol are out of control.
The data collected by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey forms the basis of the report.
11154 American adults studied
The survey examined 11,154 participants above the age of 18. That data was collected between 2005 and 2008.
It did not include the elderly people who are likely to suffer from hypertension due to old age.
The survey showed that 68 million adults had high blood pressure which was almost the same as in the last decade. Out of these, 48 million were receiving treatment and 31 million had it under control.
The one surprising finding was that 86 percent of the patients with uncontrolled blood pressure had insurance but were not taking benefit of it. The most likely cause could be that hypertension does not generally exhibit any symptoms.
The blood pressure readings should be near 120/80 and readings higher than 140/90 require medical intervention.
Americans have high cholesterol
The LDL cholesterol sometimes also called the bad cholesterol should be less than 160 but it should less than 130 for those having two or more risk factors and less than 100 for those having a heart ailment and diabetes, both.
The study found that nearly 71 million Americans had cholesterol levels on the higher side but only 34 million were receiving treatment for it.
The one positive sign was that the number of people receiving treatment for high cholesterol had increased by 28.4 percent.
The percentage of patients who reported their cholesterol under control also increased from 14.6 percent to 33.2 percent.
In the Tuesdays news conference Dr. Frieden had a message for the doctors, Controlling blood pressure and cholesterol is one of, if not the, most important thing you can do for your patients.
