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Professor David J. Demko, gerontologist and editor AgeVenture News Service, Boca Raton, Florida 05-24-2000 50 million Americans suffer from high blood pressure, which is the leading contributor to death due to heart attack, and death due to stroke. While progress has been made over the last 30 years in detecting and controlling high blood pressure, control rates are no longer improving. Alarmingly, one in four of those affected are unaware that they have high blood pressure. African American are especially a high-risk group. "Hypertension can be successfully managed, and the benefits of high blood pressure control are enormous", says Dr. Henry Black, Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center. "Clearly, more aggressive blood pressure management is critical." Black is a member of a new national effort to help patients and healthcare providers to join together to reach healthy blood pressure goals that can allow people to live longer and healthier lives. The national coalition effort is called "From Awareness to Action" (FAA). The FAA coordinates the efforts of the National Council on the Aging (NCOA) with 20 leading medical, patient and government organizations to reverse the growing trend of uncontrolled high blood pressure. The goal will be addressed by promoting an increase in the rate of diagnosis, treatment, and control of high blood pressure. Nearly half of all Americans aged 50-plus do not know their own systolic and diastolic blood pressure numbers, according to a survey released by NCOA. "From Awareness to Action" is funded by Bristol-Myers Squibb, a company with a long-standing commitment to cardiovascular health. For more information about FAA, visit their Internet website at www.fromatoa.org. For more information about the NCOA survey on high blood pressure, visit www.ncoa.org. See related articles in the AgeVenture archives. AgeVenture Lifestyle Features AgeVenture Headline News
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