Check your blood pressure, and if it's high, take medicine to get it down to target
- High value
- Evidence A
- Buys life
- Costs a little
- Takes minutes
- Some willpower
In plain words
For every 10 mmHg drop in blood pressure, the chance of a major cardiovascular event falls by about 20%, stroke by 27%, heart failure by 28% and death by 13%. Among Chinese people aged 35 to 75, 44.7% have high blood pressure, and only 7.2% have it under control.
- Cost
-
An electronic blood pressure monitor costs 100 to 200 CNY. One reading takes 1 minute. Most blood pressure pills cost a few to a few dozen CNY a month. The hard part is keeping on taking them when you have no symptoms.
- What you get
-
A pooled analysis of 123 trials and more than 610,000 (61万) people found that for every 10 mmHg lower systolic pressure, major cardiovascular events were about 20% lower (RR 0.80; 95% CI 0.77 to 0.83, the plausible range). Systolic pressure is the higher of the two numbers in a blood pressure reading. Stroke was about 27% lower (RR 0.73). Heart failure was about 28% lower (RR 0.72). Death from any cause fell 13% (RR 0.87, 95% CI 0.84 to 0.91). A screening of 1,700,000 (170万) people aged 35 to 75 in China found that 44.7% had high blood pressure. Among them, 44.7% knew they had it, 30.1% were being treated and only 7.2% had it under control.
- Notes
-
Start by taking your blood pressure once. In China, fewer than 1 in 10 people with high blood pressure have it under control, so this one measurement is among the best value-for-effort actions in this book. What counts as target (130 or 140) is still debated, but knowing you have high blood pressure and bringing it down is not controversial.
- Evidence grade
- A : Specific numbers from meta-analyses, large cohorts or randomized trials; for law and policy, the statute or official text.
- Sources
-
- Ettehad D 等 (2016). Blood pressure lowering for prevention of cardiovascular disease and death: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(15)01225-8
- Lu J 等 (2017). Prevalence, awareness, treatment, and control of hypertension in China (China PEACE Million Persons Project). Lancet. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(17)32478-9
Mentioned in
- If you have erection problems, get your cardiovascular health checked first; don't treat it as only a “private matter”
- Lose weight, quit smoking, and keep blood pressure and blood sugar under control; erectile function can improve along with them
- Don't spend big on supplements, herbal tonic pastes (膏方) or tonic products to “balance the body”
- Don't rely on a general checkup package to prevent disease; get the few screenings that have evidence for your age and sex
Translated from the Chinese original. Original book, section 1, tip 7. This section is about health and medicines. It is general information, not a substitute for a doctor’s diagnosis or prescription. Content may be out of date and rules differ by place. When you actually deal with an agency, a doctor or a court, follow what local officials, doctors and lawyers tell you. Disclaimer