Sometimes it’s hard to ask for help, but when it comes to controlling your blood pressure, community support is just what is needed to keep everyone healthy.

Every 39 seconds someone in the US dies from heart attack, stroke, or other vascular disease. This makes heart disease the leading causes of death in the United States, and the risk of heart disease is increased by high blood pressure. Often called the “silent killer” because of little warning signs or symptoms, many people believe they don’t have high blood pressure-- but about 1 in 3 U.S. adults do. Luckily, there are steps individuals can take to prevent high blood pressure, and ways to control it if you have it. 

In addition to individual actions like maintaining a healthy weight and being physically active, not smoking, taking prescribed medicine, and following a heart healthy eating plan, a new report from the CDC suggests that controlling high blood pressure may benefit from a team-based approach. Health care systems, health care providers, and patients can all work together to treat high blood pressure. Examples of ways to improve dialogue and coordination include:

• Flag and track patients with uncontrolled high blood pressure and those at risk
• Encourage prescribed treatment plans and support healthy lifestyle changes
• Communicate  any concerns and regularly evaluate medicines to determine whether treatment needs to change

How is your community making efforts to support a team-based approach to controlling blood pressure?

Please share your successes and challenges here!

Want to know more?

 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) on high blood pressure

CDC Vital Signs: http://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/

Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention