New recommendations for tighter control of high blood pressure may drastically reduce the number of individuals who die each year from hypertension-related illnesses, according to the Seventh Report of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure (JNC VII).
Boys born lean have an increased risk of elevated blood pressure in their teens if they add a lot of weight between ages 8 and 15, researchers report in today’s rapid access issue of Hypertension: Journal of the American Heart Association. “The boys who were thinnest at birth and who gained the most weight during childhood and adolescence were the ones who had the greatest risk of high blood pressure,” says lead author Linda S. Adair, Ph.D., professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Schools of Medicine and Public Health.