Tool for Calculating Your High Blood Pressure Risk

Newswise — For more than 100 years we’ve known how to measure blood pressure. But a new study discussed in the April issue of Harvard Men’s Health Watch gives people a new way of understanding the numbers on their blood pressure readings.

High blood pressure (also called hypertension) can put you at risk of heart attacks and strokes, the first and third leading cause of death in America, respectively. It can also contribute to congestive heart failure, kidney failure, memory loss and dementia, visual impairment, damage to arteries, and erectile dysfunction in older men.

According to Harvard Men’s Health Watch, every man should know his blood pressure and understand what the numbers mean, and virtually every man should do whatever it takes to bring his blood pressure down below 140/90. To help you get motivated, Harvard Men’s Health Watch published a chart that helps you see exactly what high blood pressure may mean for you. To view the chart, visit http://www.health.harvard.edu/hhp/article/content.do?name=WN0304g.

You’ll need to know some information from your medical history and your family’s, but once you’ve filled in Table 1, you can use Table 2 to calculate your risk of dying from a cardiovascular event in the next five years. If you didn’t know it before, the risk tables should convince you that high blood pressure is an important health hazard and that treating it is worth your while.

Harvard Men’s Health Watch is available from Harvard Health Publications, the publishing division of the Harvard Medical School. You can subscribe at http://www.health.harvard.edu or by calling 1-877-649-9457 toll-free.

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Harvard Health Publications publishes five monthly newsletters as well as more than 50 special health reports and books drawing on the expertise of the 8,000 faculty physicians at Harvard Medical School and its affiliated hospitals. For more information visit http://www.health.harvard.edu.