Are you below 120/80? If you are higher you have high blood pressure – hypertension (HBP) – no matter your age!
As in adults, for children, the definition is 120/80 mm Hg and is in the 95th percentile or greater, then the patient has hypertension. Like podcast form, check out my podcast channel – Doc Handal Speaks! Listen up! specifically on HBP on iTunes or the RSS feed. Also re-read the blog offering more background data.
Are you one of the 75 million American adults (29-32.6% according to CDC), the is 1 in 3 adults, who have high blood pressure? 17.2% of sufferers, almost half, don’t know they have elevated pressure in their arteries doing big-time damage. Sadly of those that know they have high blood pressure half do not have it under control.* BTW you will always have it as you take meds to control. It is true you might get off meds if you lose dramatic weight but even with that once your vessels harden even diet and exercise may not lower your’ numbers’.
Children with Hypertension (HBP)?
Children can develop HBP, as a matter of fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends annually checking blood pressure starting at age 3. Once found the child with HBP, is recommended a DASH diet and along with moderate to vigorous physical activity at least 3 to 5 d per week (30–60 min per session) to help reduce BP. Consider the MIND diet, check out a past blog. Back to diet sodium is an accepted culprit Chronic Disease Risk Reduction (CDRR) sodium levels defined by the National Academies (2020-2025) suggests consumption of :
1,200 mg/day for ages 1 through 3;
1,500 mg/day for ages 4 through 8;
1,800 mg/day for ages 9 through 13; and
2,300 mg/day for all other age groups.
The CDRR for sodium was established using evidence of the benefit of reducing sodium intake on cardiovascular risk and hypertension risk.
AHA Guidelines
The incidence of HBP in ages is too prevalent worldwide. A recent study in Pakistan aged between 4 and 7 years (19.2%) and there is a strong association between high BMI (body mass index), family history of HTN, and high-fat diet intake with HTN in children. There was no significant variation of prevalence between both genders.
2017, CDC Study detected that 1 in 25 youth ages 12 to 19 have hypertension, and 1 in 10 has elevated blood pressure. data from more than 12,000 participants ages 12 to 19 who responded to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 2001 to 2016.
Secondary HBP is a common result as is the direct result of obesity, possibly medications but also you can inherit this medical problem.
Again no surprise, same as for adults, sedentary behaviors during childhood increases the risk of developing HBP. You can imagine missing the presence of this will cause irreversible damage in so many body organs that life expectancy will drop.
Check your and your youngsters’ numbers, Trust me they will enjoy monitoring especially if they can record on their smartphones.
GET INVOLVED!
*Executive Summary: Heart Disease and From the American Heart Association. D Mozaffarian, EJ Benjamin, AS Go, DK Arnett… – Circulation, 2016
Recent Comments