High blood pressure is the leading cause of strokes. So it should be taken very seriously. A stroke prevented is one life possibly saved or one person potentially not disabled. As a stroke survivor, I wouldn't wish a stroke on anyone.
So we need to better than this - 1 in 4 Medicare patients uses blood Pressure meds incorrectly:
An analysis of 18.5 million Medicare Part D enrollees in 2014 found that 26 percent either skipped doses of their blood pressure medication or stopped taking the drugs entirely, according to the study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"That's particularly troubling, because other research indicates that up to 25 percent of new prescriptions for blood pressure medicine are never even filled in the first place," CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden said. "Of those prescribed those regimens, maybe a quarter don't even start them, and now we're finding that another quarter don't continue them."
Heart disease and stroke kill 800,000 people every year in the United States, accounting for about one out of every three deaths, Frieden said. Uncontrolled high blood pressure also has been associated with dementia and mental decline later in life, he added.
Seventy percent of U.S. adults ages 65 and older have high blood pressure (140/90 or higher), but just a little more than half have their blood pressure under control, according to the CDC.(Image from U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
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