One in three adults has high blood pressure, and a third don't even know it. News 3's Toni Morrissey investigated the little known facts about high blood pressure -- facts that could save your life. Hypertension is called the "silent killer" because you can have it without any noticeable symptoms. We know it can cause heart attacks and strokes, but there are many other dire consequences you should know about.
MADISON, Wis. -- Joe Prestigiacomo has been on kidney dialysis for five years.
"I call this my second home," said Joe Prestigiacomo, a patient at St. Marys Renal Services Center, 2840 Index Road, Madison.
Every week, he needs three treatments of three hours each because kidney failure is a complication of long-term, untreated high blood pressure. Prestigiacomo had no idea he had hypertension until he went to see the doctor for a back injury.
"The nurse took my blood pressure, and she went and got the doctor and said, 'You're in the next thing to a stroke,'" Prestigiacomo said.
People like Prestigiacomo either don't know they have high blood pressure or choose not to be treated and risk kidney failure, said Dr. Kim Trostel, a kidney specialist at Dean-St. Marys.
"People with very poorly controlled high blood pressure over 20 years, about 3 percent of them, will go on to kidney failure. If you have somewhere in-between -- not terribly controlled blood pressure, but still high blood pressure -- you're still going to be in the 1 to 2 percent range," Trostel said.
Dr. Matt Klein of Dean-St. Marys doctor knows a lot about high blood pressure because he has it himself. Klein told News that in 90 percent of the cases, the cause of high blood pressure is unknown, but one of the little known causes is sleep apnea.
"If you have that condition, which a lot of people do -- particularly people who are overweight -- you will have higher blood pressure during the day," Klein said. "Often if you treat the sleep apnea, your blood pressure will come down."
Janet Adams was diagnosed as a hypertension patient during her first labor.
"I've had bouts of extremely high blood pressure," Adams said. "I was actually hospitalized last fall. It was because of having extremely high blood pressure that we chose not to have any more children -- it was pretty scary."
Adams thought she was just one of the many women who have blood pressure spikes during labor or pregnancy. That was until she went in for a checkup, a few years after her children were born.
"It was actually the day before my 29th birthday," she said. "I went in for a regular exam, and I came home on blood pressure medication. I was devastated."
Years later with a senior in high school and her oldest in college, Adams is still taking blood pressure medicine. She's among the one in three adults who have high blood pressure.
"You can see people from all different body types, dietary patterns, genders, races and not know who has high blood pressure," Klein said.
That's why Prestigiacomo urges other to do themselves a favor -- have your blood pressure checked.
"Do something now. Because if you don't, you're going to suffer in the end," he said. "If you behave, you're going to be alright. If you don't, plffff!"
What's Normal?
The National Institutes of Health changed blood pressure guidelines in 2003. The old standard of a healthy blood pressure was 130 over 85. The new standard is 120 over 80 or below.
A new category of pre-hypertensive was added. It ranges from 121 over 81 to 139 over 89. Although the lower end is considered borderline normal. Hypertensive is 140 over 90 and above.
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