Controlling 8 risk factors may help to eliminate the risk of early death for those with high blood pressure

A new study led by researchers at Tulane University, USA, published in Precision Clinical Medicine found that individuals with high blood pressure can significantly reduce and maybe even eliminate their increased risk of early death by controlling several key health risk factors. The researchers followed more than 70,000 people with high blood pressure and over 224,000 people without it from the UK Biobank for almost 14 years.

The 8 risk factors evaluated:

• physical activity levels

• body mass index

• blood pressure

• waist circumference

• LDL Cholesterol

• blood sugar

• kidney function

• smoking status

The researchers found that hypertensive people who addressed at least 4 of these risk factors had no greater risk of early death than those without hypertension. They also found that addressing each additional risk factor was associated with a 13% lower risk of early death overall, 12% lower risk of early death due to cancer and 21% lower risk of death due to cardiovascular disease. Addressing 7 or more of the risk factors was linked to a 40% less risk of overall early death, 39% less risk of early death due to cancer and 53% less risk of early death due to cardiovascular disease.