When is High Blood Pressure Hypertension?

Frederick R. Jelovsek MD

If your blood pressure is 140/85 at the doctor's office, do you have hypertension? If it's repeated at that level several times do you need treatment for high blood pressure? With primary care doctors under pressure to keep costs down, when should they start you on medical treatment with medications and which ones to start with? A recent report by the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation and Treatment of High Blood Pressure tried to answer these questions by consensus.

William F. Rayburn M.D. has summarized those recommendations in Rayburn, WE: Sixth report of the joint national committee on prevention, detection, evaluation and treatment: A Summary. J Reproduc Med 1998 43:444-50.. Hypertension is defined as a systolic blood pressure of 140 mmHg or more, a diastolic blood pressure of 90 mm Hg or more, or the taking of antihypertensive medicines. Different blood pressure categories for adults have been defined:

Adult Blood Pressure Categories

Hypertension appears to be a multifactorial disorder in which the interaction of several genetic tendencies and the environment is important. Other diagnostic laboratory tests suggested include urinalysis, complete blood count, blood chemistry, and a 12 lead electrocardiogram. Lifestyle modification is the mainstay reccomendation to prevent and to treat hypertension. This includes:

• weight control - keep body mass index <27 and waist circumferance less than 34 in (85 cm) for women
• alcohol intake control - less than .5 oz (15 ml) of ethanol per day ( 12 oz.[360ml] beer, 5 oz [150ml] wine, 1 oz [30 ml] whiskey)
• tobacco control - discontinuance
• physical activity - 30-45 minutes brisk walking activity or more, most days of week
• diet - sodium reduction to less than 6 grams salt (2.4 gm sodium) per day. Also an adequate daily intake of potassium, calcium and magnesium.
• stress - there is no evidence that relaxation therapy or caffeine restriction is beneficial

Women who are on oral contraceptives can have a small but detectable increase in blood pressure but it is usually not enough to change them into a higher stage of increased blood pressure unless there is already a tendency present. Estrogen replacement therapy during the menopause is usually the same as with oral contraceptives, no change to a very slight increase. High blood pressure during pregnancy is an entirely different category and has it's own unique categories and treatments.

Initial treatments for hypertension depend upon the stage of blood pressure elevation and risk factors such as weight, alcohol use, physical activity, and smoking along with risk for cardiovascular disease such as diabetes, or any history of existing target organ damage to the heart, vascular system or kidneys.

Treatment by Risk Stratification of Hypertension

If you have any of the blood pressure elevations, you can get started on lifestyle modification now!