Hypertension & Prediabetes a deadly Duo against Heart-AHA

High blood pressure and prediabetes alone may do harm to the body but both conditions could lead to stroke, the second-leading cause of death in the world and a leading cause of disability.Dr. Jian-Jun Li and colleagues conducted Study to evaluate the association between slightly elevated blood sugar levels and high blood pressure on heartThe researchers found that prediabetes paired with high blood pressure, showed a significant increase in coronary artery disease severity and cardiovascular events.The study has been published in Journal Hypertension.

"For example, when there is a crack on the road, the combination of a heavy rainstorm and rolling of vehicles will make it bigger more rapidly than either one alone," Jun Li said.

A systolic blood pressure of 120-129 with a diastolic of less than 80 is consider elevated. High blood pressure is defined as a systolic pressure of 130 or above, or a diastolic pressure of 80 or above. Prediabetes is considered to be present when blood sugar or hemoglobin A1c readings are above normal range but not yet in the range of diabetes.

Prediabetes increases the odds of a person developing Type 2 diabetes and its many complications. Diabetes alone is projected to grow by 41 percent worldwide, from 422 million cases in 2014 to 642 million cases in 2040.

That's in part because prediabetes and diabetes are associated with the growing obesity rate worldwide, which has been called a "global epidemic" by the World Health Organization. Health care costs related to obesity are expected to cost more than $150 billion each year in the United States.

China is also following the trend, said Li. Researchers decided to look at the two chronic diseases "because of the increasing number of either obese or hypertensive people, especially in China."

Dr. Robert Eckel, an endocrinologist and physician-scientist at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus who wasn't involved in the study, said its results raise concern. But Eckel, a past president of the American Heart Association, cautions that guidelines for the American College of Cardiology/AHA cardiovascular disease risk estimator use diabetes as a component not prediabetes.

The study authors said that special attention should be paid to patients who have both issues.

For further reference log on: https://doi.org/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.118.11063