High blood pressure was a primary or contributing cause of death in 2017 for over 472,000 people in the United States. Heart disease, listed as the underlying cause of death, accounted for 840,678 deaths in the US in 2016, approximately 1 of every 3 deaths. In the United States, heart disease is the #1 cause of death and stroke is #5.
Overall, heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the world, claiming nearly 18 million lives in 2015. Cardiovascular disease is the leading global cause of death, accounting for more than 17.6 million deaths per year in 2016, a number that is expected to grow to more than 23.6 million by 2030, according to a 2014 study. Cardiovascular diseases claim more lives each year than all forms of cancer and Chronic Lower Respiratory Disease combined. About 69% of people who have their first heart attack, 77% who have their first stroke and 74% who have their congestive heart failure have high blood pressure.
In the United States, about 77.9 million or 1 in 3 adults have high blood pressure. Nearly half of adults in the United States (103 million or 45%) have high blood pressure. High blood pressure – also known as hypertension – can lead to heart attack, heart failure and stroke. In 2017, nearly half a million deaths in the United States included high blood pressure as a primary or contributing cause. High blood pressure was listed on death certificates as the primary cause of death of 61,762 Americans in 2009 and was also listed as a primary or contributing cause of death in about 348,102 of the more than 2.4 million U.S. deaths in 2009.
2 in 3 Americans with diabetes report having high blood pressure
Globally, high blood pressure affects nearly a third of the adult population and is the most common cause of cardiovascular disease related deaths. High blood pressure is estimated to cause 7.5 million deaths, about 12.8% of the total of all deaths. High blood pressure was the leading risk factor in the 2017 Global Burden of disease study, accounting for 10.4M deaths that year. In 2015, 1 in 4 men and 1 in 5 women had high blood pressure. A review of current trends shows that the number of adults with high blood pressure increased from 594 million in 1975 to 1.13 billion in 2015. The growth of the problem seems to be accelerating. By 2025, over 1.5B people are expected to have high blood pressure approximately 30-50% growth from 2000.
High blood pressure, also known as “the silent killer”, is very closely linked to diabetes. 2 in 3 Americans with diabetes report having high blood pressure. Over 300 million type 2 diabetics around the world have high blood pressure. This is nearly 30% of global cases of high blood pressure. Many other cases of non-diabetes related high blood pressure are also causes of over consumption of sugar.
Let’s stop the cycle by cutting out sugar.