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Can Young Adults Be Spared From Hypertension?
Besides some known risk factors such as obesity, stress, smoking, diabetes, family history of hypertension, eat too much salt and drink too much alcohol, people are prone to having hypertension as they grow older. This is because ageing tend to cause blood vessels stiffer, which would raise the blood pressure. But according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, nearly 1 in 5 young American adults might have hypertension suggesting that problem of hypertension might be more widespread than previously thought. The paper was published in the journal ‘Epidemiology’ on May 25, 2011. The findings also showed that only half of these adults had been told by a doctor that they were hypertensive, indicating that not everyone might be aware that they have high blood pressure. It is likely that some young adults do not visit clinics at all and do not measure their blood pressure at home using blood pressure monitor, so they would know that they got the illness.
Health data from 14,000 men and women aged between 24 and 32 were analyzed. These adults were participated in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, also known as the Add Health study. 19 percent of these participants had high blood pressure. As the results were across every demographic: age, race, ethnicity, gender and level of obesity, it did not seem like the results were focused within a certain group of people. Nevertheless, researchers saw the emergence of certain trends. Men were more likely than women to have hypertension (27 percent of men versus 11 percent of women) and college-educated adults (22 percent of college-educated people versus 17 percent of high school-educated people) were less likely to have hypertension. Such results were somewhat surprising because a federal government study by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted in 2008 suggested that only 4 percent of young adults might have hypertension. It was suspected that differing characteristics of the study participants and the accuracy of the blood pressure readings might cause some of the discrepancy in the findings. But researchers disagreed that these reasons could possibly account for such a big differnce in both studies' results. The new findings are significant in pointing out that many young Americans are in fact at risk of heart disease yet they are not aware that they have hypertension. The new study, however, did not examine why the numbers might be raising or relate the findings to the intake of sodium (salt). While the health officials in the United States agreed that the study provided a worrisome signal, they are cautious to embrace the new findings until they could be confirmed by other studies. People diagnosed with hypertension should be treated promptly and appropriately, otherwise chances that they will develop a stroke, heart disease, kidney disease and even early death would be fairly high. As such, it is important to prevent blood pressure from getting high. There are a few ways to help people prevent hypertension. First of all, they can choose to eat a balanced and healthy diet high in fruits and vegetables. They should reduce sodium intake to less than 2,300 milligrams a day. Alcohol consumption should be limited to 2 drinks or less for men and 1 drink or less for women. More importantly, people should exercise regularly. As recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), adults should get at least 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity every week.
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