(MedicalNewsToday.com) — Two-thirds of all US adults with hypertension (high blood pressure) and high cholesterol are not getting effective treatment, says a new report called “Vital Signs” issued by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), and 80% of them have the necessary health insurance cover to do something about it.
Treatment for hypertension and high cholesterol is relatively cheap and extremely effective, the authors explained. If these two risk factors are not controlled, the patient runs a significantly higher risk of having a stroke, heart attack, and other serious diseases.
The authors wrote that the lowest rates of control are among those with either none or inadequate health insurance cover.
An 80% figure for those with high blood pressure and high cholesterol with good insurance cover is of concern, because it shows that insurance alone is not enough to control these potentially fatal conditions.
Strokes, heart attacks and other vascular diseases kill over 800,000 US people annually. Hypertension and high cholesterol are major risk factors for these diseases. 150,000 of these premature deaths occur among individuals less than 65 years of age.
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Another lie. Although it is true that high BP is the risk factor for all the listed diseases, there is no evidence that lowering it with drugs reduces the risk, but the side affects are to die for.
My blood pressure was very good at average 125/77-133/80 at 67 years old. Then I went to the doctor for a physical. A little “white coat hypertention” a 3 hour wait in an over crowded waiting room,and the doctor saying “you got HBP!” gave me HBP! The doctor spent less than 5 minutes with me ,enough time to write a prescription and tell me how importent it was I start taking the drugs right a way. Every day I wish I could take that day back and not go to that doctor.
Amen to that! I was in the 115/70 to 140/75 range [the higher on Doctor vists to Cardiologist assigned by my PCP and ‘blessed’ by my insurance company.
I have taken and ‘watched’ my BP for years, and the high BP is TOTALLY due to ‘White Coat Syndrome’ so that my BP soars at the Cardiologist’s office [NOT my PCP’s office!!!!!]. My Cardiologist is a jerk AND a fruitcake and refuses to even just ‘listen’ to me.
While Bloopd pressure rises at different times during the day, it is a red flag, if your BP chronically is elevated at the Dr’s office – the question here, is what is happening at other times when one might be encountering different degrees of stress. The cummulative effect on the cardiovascular system are insidious and overtime will kill or cripple. There are many tools to determine if you have an over reactive cardiovascular system (holter, 24 ABP), Echo, etc). I do agree, that the interaction with a lot of cardiologists is innadequate and do not build trust, so that many patients begin to doubt whether such advise is based on a weighed and careful evaluation or just a rush to cover basis and move on. Everyone would be better off, if this dialogue with MD’s would improve!