Testing It Up

When one talks about high blood pressure, more often than not, thoughts turn to the belief that it is a condition that affects old people. A new study, published online in the journal online in the journal Hypertension, observed a steep increase in the number of young people sent to the hospital for high blood pressure.

The study found that hospital stays for Americans aged 18 and below due to high blood pressure nearly doubled over a ten-year period – from 12,661 in 1997 to 24,602 in 2006. The researchers pointed out further that high blood pressure among kids is becoming more common, with the condition affecting up to 3% of children in America.

Joshua Samuels, MD, of the University of Texas, who wrote an editorial published along with the study, shared: “significant increases in blood pressure are likely riding the wave of pediatric obesity that is spreading across America.”

Suzanne Steinbaum, DO, a preventive cardiologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, on the other hand, shared: “This could be a huge wake-up call. When I read an article like this, I feel like standing on the buildings in New York City and screaming. Children are getting sicker and sicker as they’re getting more obese. There’s going to be a huge increase in heart disease and health care costs because of this… Children who have hypertension usually become adults with hypertension. And children who are obese usually become obese adults, with all the chronic conditions associated with that.”