{"id":441,"date":"2015-09-23T08:00:46","date_gmt":"2015-09-23T14:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tcwordpressblog.azurewebsites.net\/?p=441"},"modified":"2015-09-23T08:00:46","modified_gmt":"2015-09-23T14:00:46","slug":"high-blood-pressure-better-control-makes-difference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.togetherclinic.com\/?p=441","title":{"rendered":"High Blood Pressure \u2013 Better Control Makes a Difference"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>High blood pressure, or hypertension, is a big problem. According to the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/bloodpressure\/facts.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CDC<\/a>, over 70 million Americans have high blood pressure and only about half have achieved adequate control of their blood pressure.\u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cms.gov\/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems\/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports\/Chronic-Conditions\/2012ChartBook.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Fifty-eight percent<\/a>\u00a0(58%) of Medicare beneficiaries have high blood pressure.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/circ.ahajournals.org\/content\/126\/17\/2105.full\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Almost half of patients<\/a>\u00a0treated will require more than one drug to control their blood pressure. The cost to treat high blood is close to a staggering $46 billion annually.<\/p>\n<p>We have known for a long time that controlling blood pressure is important. A recent study supported by the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nhlbi.nih.gov\/news\/press-releases\/2015\/landmark-nih-study-shows-intensive-blood-pressure-management-may-save-lives\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">National Institutes of Health<\/a>\u00a0involving over 9,000 participants demonstrated that \u201cmore intensive management of high blood pressure\u201d can significantly reduce the risk of death and cardiovascular events. Patients were seen monthly until their systolic blood pressure (top blood pressure number) was below 120 mmHg then seen routinely as their care team felt appropriate. The goal of 120 mmHg is below what is stated in the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/jama.jamanetwork.com\/article.aspx?articleid=1791497\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">current guidelines<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>When is blood pressure most routinely checked? In the physician\u2019s office. How reliable is that measurement? Good question. Usually the office blood pressure is an accurate measurement, but many factors can effect the quality of the office blood pressure reading: time of day, anxiety, \u2018white coat syndrome\u2019, etc. Regular blood pressure readings between appointments, following a proper diet, exercise, and reliably taking prescribed medications can increase the success in controlling blood pressure.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.togetherclinic.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Together Clinic<\/a>\u00a0was created to bridge this gap in care. We allow patients and physicians to work together between appointments to achieve optimal blood pressure control leading to improved outcomes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>High blood pressure, or hypertension, is a big problem. According to the\u00a0CDC, over 70 million Americans have high blood pressure and only about half have achieved adequate control of their blood pressure.\u00a0\u00a0Fifty-eight percent\u00a0(58%) of Medicare beneficiaries have high blood pressure.\u00a0Almost half of patients\u00a0treated will require more than one drug to control their blood pressure. The<br \/><a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.togetherclinic.com\/?p=441\">+ Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":451,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.togetherclinic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.togetherclinic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.togetherclinic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.togetherclinic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.togetherclinic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.togetherclinic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.togetherclinic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.togetherclinic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.togetherclinic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.togetherclinic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}