High Blood Pressure
The American Heart Association ‘Natural History of Hypertension Subtypes’ article says that cardiovascular disease risk starts at 115/75, which is probably why the pre-hypertensive category got added and starts at 120/80.
The Medscape site has a new term – Mean blood pressure. It is roughly estimated at Diastolic Blood pressure + 1/3 of pulse pressure. It is the most correlated with stroke. Though the article is focused in telling doctors not to ignore ISH (isolated systolic hypertension) in people over 50, it, by accident, is also telling doctors not to ignore IDH (isolated diastolic hypertension) as it raises the mean blood pressure (DP+1/3*PP). Combining with the AHA Hypertension Subtypes article, risk of cornary artery disease is still present because IDH is likely to turn into SDH (systo-dialstolic hypertension) over time, which is a big risk factor of conary artery disease.
I read these because my mom is paranoid about my blood pressure, but is focusing her paranoia on the bottom (diastolic) number. My mom has 4 stented cornary arteries (over two emergency room visits with chest angina), and 100%/70% occluded carotid arteris (moderate language-area stroke with high-recovery). I have a crusing (at home, low stress, usually night-time) BP of 118/78 to 125/85 that sometimes elevates to 130/80-90 to 135/90-95 (intermittent mornings or moderate stress) and peaks at 140/100 (traveling or high-stress). My absolute highest reading was 142/105, but I’ve had a few (5-10) isolated readings of 135-140 over 95-100. My pulse pressure (difference between the high / systolic and low / diastolic numbers) is usually 40-45, but intermittently it can be as high as 50 or as low as 35.
Overall i am pre-hypertension with intermittant elevation into isolated diastolic stage-1 hypertension (ISH-1 is >=140/<90; IDH-1 is <140/>=90; SDH-1 is >=140/>=90) and uncommon elevations into SDH-1/IDH-2. I do have a high resting heart rate in the low-to-mid 80s which means I don’t get enough excercise. My cholesterol is borderline-high (210-225), slightly higher than my father’s (190-210; My father’s genetic baseline with a worse diet). My mother had (before drugs) cholesterol was over 250 and my sister (smoker+recovering alcoholic) is over 300. My mother’s BP was really high all her life. She is normalized with drugs but is probably very dependant on them now because if she misses more than 1 consecutive dose, it turns 200+/something (<100 i think). I hope I have my father’s genetics in regards to BP (excluding stress sensitivity) in addition to cholesterol. The non-alcholic members of my father’s side of the family all have lived a long time, and even the alchoholics get into their 60s (and still drinking).? My father’s-side grandfather will probably outlive my mother and is is my only currently-living grandparent.
