* High blood pressure (hypertension), once mainly associated with middle age, is increasingly affecting children, adolescents, and working-age adults, with a rise in strokes reported.
* Hypertension is persistently high pressure in the arteries and is often called a “silent killer” because it causes damage without obvious symptoms.
* Diagnosis is made using a blood pressure cuff, producing systolic (heart contracting) and diastolic (heart relaxing) readings.
* Adult thresholds vary by country:
* UK: healthy is 90/60 to 119/79; hypertension is 140/90 or higher.
* US: stage 1 hypertension starts at 130/80; stage 2 at 140/90.
* In children, there is no fixed threshold; hypertension is diagnosed when readings are in the highest 5% for age, height, and sex.
* Risk factors include age, family history, ethnicity (higher risk in Black African, Black Caribbean, and South Asian populations), poor diet, high salt intake, obesity, inactivity, smoking, excess alcohol, and chronic stress.
* In young children, hypertension usually results from underlying medical conditions (secondary hypertension).
* Rates in children and adolescents have risen more than fourfold since the 1990s, reaching about 6%, largely due to obesity, poor diet, and inactivity.
* Health impacts include damage to arteries, heart disease, heart failure, aneurysms, kidney failure, vision loss, dementia, and strokes.
* Children can suffer early organ damage, particularly to the heart, kidneys, and eyes, making early detection critical.
* Blood pressure can be reduced through medication and lifestyle changes, including a healthy low-salt diet, maintaining a healthy weight, regular physical activity, avoiding smoking and excess alcohol, and reducing sedentary time.
Discarded_Twix_Bar on
If you’re an adult, and have even slightly elevated BP, you need to get that shit under control asap.
Increase exercise and lose fat, sure, but wrestle with your GP and get on BP drugs.
They’re (basically) side effect free, dirt cheap, and will save your ass in the long run while you lower BP seperately with lifestyle changes.
There’s almost no reason not to take these drugs to get your BP in perfect shape (<120/70).
I’m not saying you need to be on BP drugs for life, but getting on BP drugs will fix your issues immediately *while* you implement lifestyle changes. You and your doc can reduce your dosage, or come off of them completely over time.
Wishmaster891 on
I know its only part of the issue but
“looks at the all the takeaways , restaurant’s , independent coffee shops selling pastries ect” i’m sure they are playing their part. I am 36 now and when i was in my 20s there were not half the amount of these places around
Available-Nose-5666 on
Diet and lifestyle plays a role in blood pressure. As more children spend time on devices rather than outdoors and eat a lot of processed foods it will cause blood pressure to spike.
brrlls on
Lot’s of great information in this thread.
Over the years, General Practice has become dictated to buy the NICE guidelines and their QOF targets
As more people are obese at an earlier age, the need for BP agents is rising.
NICE review evidence and update guidelines at least every decade, however, they are not as personalised as they could be and are based on population level data.
My recommendation is to establish your BP first. That would be getting a cheap automated machine and cuff. They’re not brilliantly accurate but will let you know the lay of the land.
Simple biomechanics tells you your heart works harder with every added kilo. Take a look at your diet. Change your relationship with food. Consider a light to moderate exercise regime. Consider your fluid intake.
Then, discuss BP medication.
They are overall cardio protective in nature, and the benefits will only increase with duration.
Data does show modest decreases in systolic BPs at middle doses (expect a 5-15mmHg drop), but a renewed relationship with food and exercise can achieve more than this without pharmacological intervention and is even more cardio protective in the long run
MagicalWhisk on
This is anecdotal, but COVID can cause permanent blood pressure issues. My blood pressure was 110/60 before getting COVID, but after a 2024 infection it went to 150/100 and never came back down.
I’m now on beta blockers because a cardiologist I’m seeing has experience dealing with post COVID cardiovascular issues and said they have been seeing this outcome in a lot of patients.
Lisylou21 on
My 13 year old has had high blood pressure since she was 5, due to renal artery stenosis. Which is a rare complication of the genetic condition she has, called neurofibromatosis type 1. She’s on 2 types of BP medication.
I also had pregnancy related high blood pressure, preeclampsia and hellp syndrome in my last pregnancy 2 years ago. Took a year to return to normal afterwards.
7 Comments
**Article TLDR**
* High blood pressure (hypertension), once mainly associated with middle age, is increasingly affecting children, adolescents, and working-age adults, with a rise in strokes reported.
* Hypertension is persistently high pressure in the arteries and is often called a “silent killer” because it causes damage without obvious symptoms.
* Diagnosis is made using a blood pressure cuff, producing systolic (heart contracting) and diastolic (heart relaxing) readings.
* Adult thresholds vary by country:
* UK: healthy is 90/60 to 119/79; hypertension is 140/90 or higher.
* US: stage 1 hypertension starts at 130/80; stage 2 at 140/90.
* In children, there is no fixed threshold; hypertension is diagnosed when readings are in the highest 5% for age, height, and sex.
* Risk factors include age, family history, ethnicity (higher risk in Black African, Black Caribbean, and South Asian populations), poor diet, high salt intake, obesity, inactivity, smoking, excess alcohol, and chronic stress.
* In young children, hypertension usually results from underlying medical conditions (secondary hypertension).
* Rates in children and adolescents have risen more than fourfold since the 1990s, reaching about 6%, largely due to obesity, poor diet, and inactivity.
* Health impacts include damage to arteries, heart disease, heart failure, aneurysms, kidney failure, vision loss, dementia, and strokes.
* Children can suffer early organ damage, particularly to the heart, kidneys, and eyes, making early detection critical.
* Blood pressure can be reduced through medication and lifestyle changes, including a healthy low-salt diet, maintaining a healthy weight, regular physical activity, avoiding smoking and excess alcohol, and reducing sedentary time.
If you’re an adult, and have even slightly elevated BP, you need to get that shit under control asap.
[Long term high-normal BP of 130/80] (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12916-025-04055-5) has significantly higher risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke, and all cause mortality compared with those consistently below 130/80.
Increase exercise and lose fat, sure, but wrestle with your GP and get on BP drugs.
They’re (basically) side effect free, dirt cheap, and will save your ass in the long run while you lower BP seperately with lifestyle changes.
There’s almost no reason not to take these drugs to get your BP in perfect shape (<120/70).
I’m not saying you need to be on BP drugs for life, but getting on BP drugs will fix your issues immediately *while* you implement lifestyle changes. You and your doc can reduce your dosage, or come off of them completely over time.
I know its only part of the issue but
“looks at the all the takeaways , restaurant’s , independent coffee shops selling pastries ect” i’m sure they are playing their part. I am 36 now and when i was in my 20s there were not half the amount of these places around
Diet and lifestyle plays a role in blood pressure. As more children spend time on devices rather than outdoors and eat a lot of processed foods it will cause blood pressure to spike.
Lot’s of great information in this thread.
Over the years, General Practice has become dictated to buy the NICE guidelines and their QOF targets
As more people are obese at an earlier age, the need for BP agents is rising.
NICE review evidence and update guidelines at least every decade, however, they are not as personalised as they could be and are based on population level data.
My recommendation is to establish your BP first. That would be getting a cheap automated machine and cuff. They’re not brilliantly accurate but will let you know the lay of the land.
Simple biomechanics tells you your heart works harder with every added kilo. Take a look at your diet. Change your relationship with food. Consider a light to moderate exercise regime. Consider your fluid intake.
Then, discuss BP medication.
They are overall cardio protective in nature, and the benefits will only increase with duration.
Data does show modest decreases in systolic BPs at middle doses (expect a 5-15mmHg drop), but a renewed relationship with food and exercise can achieve more than this without pharmacological intervention and is even more cardio protective in the long run
This is anecdotal, but COVID can cause permanent blood pressure issues. My blood pressure was 110/60 before getting COVID, but after a 2024 infection it went to 150/100 and never came back down.
I’m now on beta blockers because a cardiologist I’m seeing has experience dealing with post COVID cardiovascular issues and said they have been seeing this outcome in a lot of patients.
My 13 year old has had high blood pressure since she was 5, due to renal artery stenosis. Which is a rare complication of the genetic condition she has, called neurofibromatosis type 1. She’s on 2 types of BP medication.
I also had pregnancy related high blood pressure, preeclampsia and hellp syndrome in my last pregnancy 2 years ago. Took a year to return to normal afterwards.