How do I tell if I am at risk for hypertension?

Are you breathing—you are at risk. Seventy percent of people in the developed world at age 70 develop some form of high blood pressure. So we all are at risk, until we have no pressure—called nopertension. A bad condition, since your blood pressure is what pushes blood from your heart to your organs and keeps delivering oxygen and nutrients to all tissues. The bad news—high blood pressure (over 115/75) leads to severe morbidity and even death. In 50-year-old men, a bottom number of 90 to 105 (rather than 75) caused 33% of them to become disabled within 5 years in the VA Cooperative studies.

The great news, normalization of your blood pressure by your habits or by medications reduces morbidity (things like disabling strokes and even impotence) and risk of dying (if impotence and strokes weren't enough motivation) by over 80%.

That's why we YOU Docs think your blood pressure is the second most important number you can know, and one that you check every year. So if you are breathing, you should know your BP. NOW!