Tuesday October 14, 2008 (foodconsumer.org) -- More American than ever suffer high blood pressure and more Americans receive treatment and live rather than died from hypertension, according to a new study published in the Nov. 2008 issue of hypertension.

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.

Paul D. Sorlie, Ph.D and colleagues, authors of the study, 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.

High blood pressure is believed to kill about 300,000 people in the United States each year.   It is estimated about 30 percent of American adults suffer high blood pressure or hypertension with the highest rate in African Americans and the lowest rate in Mexican Americans. And about 28 percent of people have pre-hypertension.

In 2003, people paid 35 million physician office visits for hypertension, which is a major risk factor for heart disease, stroke, congestive heart failure, and kidney disease.

High blood pressure is known by some as a silent killer and at least one third of the patients actually are not aware of their having the condition, according to an official document from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It is estimated that about 90 percent of middle-aged adults will develop high blood pressure in the remainder of their lifetime.

High blood pressure for adults is defined as a systolic blood pressure of 140 mmHg or higher, or a diastolic blood pressure of 90 mmHg or higher while pre-hypertension is defined as a systolic blood pressure of 120–139 mmHg or a diastolic blood pressure of 80–89 mmHg.

The overall cost of high blood pressure is estimated at more than $60 billion.

Like many others disease, there are something that can be done and something that cannot be done to reduce the risk.   For prevention of high blood pressure, the controllable risk factors include body weight, physical activity, a healthy diet, and restricted use of alcohol, prevention of diabetes, no use of tobacco, and use of medications.