Patients with high blood pressure are encouraged to know their number for health purposes. | Courtesy of Shutterstock
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Amanda Rupp | May 22, 2016

Patients encouraged to know, improve high blood pressure numbers

The American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Heart Association (AHA) recently united to encouraged people to learn their high blood pressure numbers, as there are increasing death rates related to high blood pressure in the U.S.

The goal of this Know Your Numbers campaign, in honor of World Hypertension Day, is to make people more aware of the negative outcomes of high blood pressure. When people know their blood pressure levels, it is more likely that they can take the important actions needed to reduce high blood pressure.

"In addition to its obvious devastating impact on patients and their families, heart disease has a massive financial ripple effect across the health care system,” AMA President Steven Stack said. “On World Hypertension Day, the AMA remains keenly focused on the millions of Americans who have uncontrolled hypertension. By empowering more patients to monitor and control their blood pressure, we will help improve health outcomes for patients and reduce health care costs."

The AHA and AMA partnership began with the Target: BP national campaign last November. Soon the partners will start their next phase: guaranteeing that health systems and physician practices in the U.S. are encouraging their communities to improve blood pressure rates.

Approximately 50 percent of the 80 million U.S. adults who have high blood pressure also have it under control. The remaining 50 percent remain susceptible to dangerous health problems that stem from high blood pressure, such as heart failure, heart attacks and strokes.

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