Young men should be just as concerned about high blood pressure as older men because they’re in danger of dying from heart attacks and strokes later in life, a new study has revealed.
The alarming findings suggest prevention of hypertension should begin in childhood.
The study by the Northwestern University Medical School is important because most previous research focused on middle-aged and older men.
And most screening and treatment guidelines had been based on those findings.
The research was based on data collected on 10,874 Chicago men aged 18 through 39 who were studied from 1967 to 1973 and then followed for an average of 25 years.
Almost 62 percent of those studied had either high-normal blood pressure or stage 1 hypertension.
Life expectancy was shortened by 2.2 years for men with high-normal blood pressure and by 4.1 years for those with stage 1 hypertension. Men with high-normal blood pressure had a 34 percent higher risk of dying from coronary heart disease, and those with Stage 1 hypertension had a 50 percent higher risk of dying of coronary heart disease.
“When you’re young, you never believe you’re going to have heart disease,” said Dr. Martha Daviglus, one of the study’s authors.
“But if we educate young people – that ‘Yes, this is really going to affect you’ – they may change their lifestyle.”
She said many doctors do not prescribe medication to treat high blood pressure in young men because of concerns about potential side effects of long-term drug use.