Blood pressure of 130 is new ‘high,’ updated guidelines say

WASHINGTON — The nation’s heart experts tightened the guidelines for high blood pressure Monday, a change that will sharply increase the number of U.S. adults considered hypertensive in the hope that they, and their doctors, will address the deadly condition sooner.

Acting for the first time in 14 years, the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology redefined high blood pressure as a reading of 130 over 80, down from 140 over 90. The change means that 46 percent of U.S. adults, many of them under the age of 45, now will be considered hypertensive. Under the previous guideline, 32 percent of U.S. adults had high blood pressure.

Normal blood pressure still will be considered 120 over 80.

“We’re recognizing that blood pressures that we in the past thought were normal or so-called ‘prehypertensive’ actually placed the patient at significant risk for heart disease and death and disability,” said Robert Carey, cochairman of the group that produced the new report.

But the report’s authors predicted that relatively few of those who fall into the new hypertensive category will need medication. Rather, they hope, that many found with the early stages of the condition will be able to address it through lifestyle changes such as improving their diet, getting more exercise, consuming less alcohol and sodium and lowering stress.

In 2010, high blood pressure was the leading cause of death worldwide and the second-leading cause of preventable death in the United States, after cigarette smoking.

Hypertension leads to cardiovascular disease, strokes, severe kidney disease and other maladies that kill millions of Americans every year.