New guidelines offer a good reason to check your blood pressure

By Connie Wirta

Youmay be falling victim to a silent killer. But unlike a classic murder mystery, the culprit lies within you.

High blood pressure, which puts you at risk for heart attack and stroke, has no symptoms for years, explains Dr. Catherine “Katie” Benziger, a cardiologist at the Essentia Health-St. Mary’s Heart & Vascular Center in Duluth. The condition, also called hypertension, slowly damages your heart, kidneys and brain.

Under new guidelines issued by the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology, nearly half of all American adults, and nearly 80 percent of those age 65 and older, need to take steps to reduce their blood pressure. And the number of women younger than 45 with a diagnosis of high blood pressure is expected to double.

The new guidelines define high blood pressure as 130/80 millimeters of mercury or greater for anyone with a significant risk of heart attack or stroke. Previous guidelines were 140/90. The first number describes the pressure on blood vessels when the heart contracts, and the second number is the pressure as the heart relaxes between beats.

“High blood pressure makes your heart work harder, and that can lead to heart attacks or heart failure,” Dr.

Benziger says. “High blood pressure also causes strokes, which can be very debilitating, and can cause memory problems and dementia. But people don’t feel unwell unless their blood pressure is very high — like over 180/100s.”

With more people fitting into the new guidelines, Dr. Benziger says it’s a good time to check your blood pressure and have a conversation with your physician. She explains that blood pressure is just one factor in determining your risk for heart disease and other cardiovascular conditions.

“We need to look at the whole picture to determine risk,” the cardiologist explains.

You need to get to know some other numbers: your cholesterol levels, fasting blood sugar level and your body mass index. Smoking, stress and family medical history also factor into your cardiovascular risk score.

The new guidelines say anyone with at least a 10 percent risk of a heart attack or stroke in the next decade should aim for blood pressure below 130/80. But simply being age 65 or older with high blood pressure brings most people close to that 10 percent cutoff. Younger patients with this level of risk include those with conditions such high cholesterol, kidney disease or diabetes.

If your risk is high, Dr. Benziger says, you need to discuss medications to help lower your blood pressure.

Fortunately, she says, there are a wide range of options to choose from, and most are inexpensive.

“Medications should be our last line of defense,” Dr. Benziger says, recommending that you first make lifestyle changes that can help lower your blood pressure. Boost your physical activity, eat a healthy diet, lose weight or maintain a healthy weight, and limit your consumption of salt and alcohol, the cardiologist advises.

“You don’t need to work out at the gym; I just encourage people to move more,” Dr. Benziger says. “Get more steps in your day by walking to the mailbox, parking at the back of a parking lot or walking the perimeter of a grocery store or discount store while you’re shopping.”

Dr. Benziger encourages people to think about scheduling “well-adult checkups” to monitor their health, learn their key numbers and help prevent conditions like high blood pressure. “We need to find a way to make the healthy choice, the easy choice,” says the cardiologist, who also is a researcher at the Essentia Institute of Rural Health. D

Connie Wirta is an editor for Essentia Health marketing. She wrote this for The Woman Today. To make an appointment with Dr. Benziger or another cardiologist at the Essentia Health-St. Mary’s Medical Center’s Heart and Vascular Center in Duluth, call (218) 786-3443 or go to EssentiaHealth.org.

Understanding blood pressure

The only way to know if you have high blood pressure (hypertension) is to have your blood pressure tested. Understanding your numbers is important.

Blood pressure is recorded as two numbers:

• Systolic blood pressure (the upper number): how much pressure your blood is exerting against your artery walls when your heart beats.

• Diastolic blood pressure (the lower number): how much pressure your blood is exerting against your artery walls while your heart rests between beats.

Here’s how the American Heart Association now classifies blood pressure readings:

• Normal: Less than 120/less than 80

• Elevated: 120-129/less than 80

• High blood pressure

Stage 1: 130-139/80-89

Stage 2: 140 or higher/90 or higher

Hypertensive crisis: Higher than 180 and/or higher than 120