Studies show that more and more Americans suffer from high blood pressure or hypertension and that people are beginning to be aware of the situation. Because of the fact that there are no clear symptoms caused by hypertension very few people affected by this were actually aware of their condition. Now, it seems things have changed for the good in this matter, as more and more people who have high blood pressure know of their health status. Though increased awareness is good, the fact that the number of people who have hypertension has also increased is certainly a bad thing.

Researchers used the data from a survey that evaluates a large amount of the U.S population. The information was gathered through interviews and physical examinations and this new data was compared to other two surveys, the first one being conducted between 1988 and 1994 and the second one between 1999 and 2004. According to the new data, researchers have found that awareness has increased from 68.5% to 71.8% and that, now, approximately one in three Americans suffer from high blood pressure.

Even though, there are no clear symptoms of hypertension, this condition can lead to more serious health problems like coronary heart disease, strokes and heart and kidney failure. High blood pressure is usually caused by smoking and alcohol abuse, salty diets, lack of physical exercise or may be something hereditary. Researchers think that the increase of the number of people suffering from high blood tension is in accordance with the fact that obesity is now more widespread than it was when the first surveys were conducted.