Young Boomers Must Watch Their Blood Pressure, Now

It’s the time for New Year’s resolutions, and now’s the time for 50-year-olds to take charge of their blood pressure levels.  This is the finding reported online in the journal Circulation - how blood pressure changes during middle age can be related to the remaining lifetime risk for cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, and stroke.

The Northwestern University, Chicago, researchers examined pooled data from 7 US cohort studies: the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, Framingham Heart Study, Framingham Offspring Study, Honolulu Heart Program, Kaiser Permanente Study of the Oldest Old, Cardiovascular Health Study, and Women's Health Initiative Observational Study.  They followed 61,585 men and women starting at age 55, who had blood pressure recordings for at least 14 years prior to enrollment.

The overall lifetime risk for cardiovascular disease was 53% for men and 40% for women.  The risks for coronary heart disease were 31% and 18%, and the risks for stroke were 11% and 15%.

The risks for all three outcomes were greater as blood pressure at age 55 was higher; this was expected.  But changes in blood pressure over an average of 14 years leading up to age 55 were associated with variations in the remaining lifetime risks.

Those who maintained normal blood pressure or achieved normal readings through middle age had a lower remaining lifetime risk of cardiovascular disease (22% to 41%) compared with those who had maintained or developed hypertension (42% to 69%). Similar to the findings for cardiovascular disease, maintaining or achieving normal blood pressure over time was associated with a lower lifetime risk of coronary heart disease (6% to 25%) compared with those who maintained or developed hypertensive levels (14% to 45%). The same was true for stroke (10% to 13% versus 19% to 26%).

This study shows that changes of blood pressure in middle age are clearly linked with a corresponding higher or lower risk of heart disease and stroke.  So this is clearly also a critical time for people to pay attention to their blood pressure levels, and take appropriate steps to manage changes; the effects of lifestyle choices will be magnified at this time period.  As the report states: “Therefore, avoiding hypertension before middle age and delaying the onset of the development of hypertension both appear to have a significant impact on an individual's remaining lifetime risk for cardiovascular disease.”