Tuesday October 14, 2008 (foodconsumer.org) -- Bad news for today is that more American than ever have hypertension and high blood pressure and the good news (for business?) is that more Americans receive treatment and live rather than died from hypertension, according to a new study published in the Nov. 2008 issue of hypertension.

Researchers from the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute attributed the ever-increasing number of Americans with high blood pressure to the obesity epidemic and suggested that more prevention effort needs to be invested in preventing obesity.

For the study, Paul D. Sorlie, Ph.D and colleagues went through data on a total of 30,781 people who enrolled in two National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, one from 1998 and 1994 and the other from 1999 and 2004.

Results of the current study showed both men and women have experienced an increase in blood pressure with men starting at age 60 and women at age 40.   The percentage of people with high blood pressure increased from 50.3 to 55.5 percent between 1994 and 2004 while the rate of hypertension increased from 32.3 to 36.1 percent.

Of those who had high blood pressure, 72 percent knew they had the condition and 61 percent received treatment. But only 35 percent had their blood pressure under control.

A higher percentage of people became aware of high blood pressure, a higher percentage of people received treatment and also the higher percentage of people got their high blood pressure under control.

Among black men, the control rate increased from 17 to 30 percent while among white men, the rate increased from 22 percent to 39 percent.    But the rate of women who got their high blood pressure under control did not change.

In the United States, one third of the American adults have high blood pressure or hypertension.   Having the condition increases one's chance for developing heart disease, stroke and other serious health conditions, according to a government health agency.