DeBakey Says 90% With Hypertension Do Not Control It
NEW YORK — More than 90% of Americans who suffer high blood pressure do not have it under control and the consequences could be deadly, heart surgeon Michael E. DeBakey said Thursday.
“There is still a big gap between the prevalence of the disease and its control,” DeBakey said at a conference on hypertension.
He said 46% of people with hypertension go untreated because they are unaware that they have the disease. Others feel no symptoms and, convinced that they are healthy, spurn the medicine, special diets and exercise prescribed to keep the condition under control.
“There are no symptoms (of hypertension),” said DeBakey, chairman of the department of surgery at Baylor University College of Medicine in Houston.
About 60 million Americans, or one out of every four, are believed to have hypertension, a condition that can result in heart attack and stroke.
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