Hypertension

Hypertension—or high blood pressure (BP)–is a pervasive medical condition in which the long-term force of the blood against your artery walls is high enough that it may eventually cause profound health problems, including heart disease.

Hypertension develops over many years, and it eventually affects nearly everyone. Hypertension is a “Silent Killer” with an estimated 70 million adult Americans (29%) having high blood pressure, as do 1 billion people worldwide. Genetic factors, as well as diet, life-style, exercise and age are all risk factors for hypertension, which is an asymptotic disease–-treatable but not curable–-and as a function of age, it is more prevalent in older adults.

Reducing hypertension can save hundreds of thousands of lives annually and billions of dollars in healthcare:  Total costs associated with high blood pressure in 2011 in the U.S. were $46 billion in health care services, medications, and missed days of work.