Blood Pressure Archive

It is possible to experience a stroke without symptoms. Addressing cardiovascular risk factors can help lower the risk.

Treating people who have low levels of vitamin D with supplements may reduce their risk for heart attacks and death from any cause.

Some people with borderline high blood pressure have higher readings during winter, even high enough to need medicine to control it. In spring or summer, they might be able to reduce the dose or stop taking the medication. Losing excess weight and cutting back on salt also can help.

The most common type of heart failure in older adults is heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. This is caused by the heart's left ventricle not being able to relax, which means less blood enters the chamber, so less gets pumped out. Prevention and treatments continue to evolve, but include controlling blood pressure, addressing weight gain with exercise and diet, not smoking, and curbing alcohol intake.

For people over 60, aiming for a blood pressure target below 130/80 mm Hg may prevent more cardiovascular problems than aiming for the higher target suggested by some physicians. Some feared that the more intensive treatment required to reach the lower target might cause more adverse side effects (such as dizziness and falls) in older people. But side effects do not appear to differ among people taking intensive versus standard therapy.

People who ate healthy plant-based foods had a 10% reduction in stroke risk, compared with people who ate unhealthy plant-based foods, according to a Harvard study published online March 10, 2021, by the journal Neurology.