Special Groups with too high Blood Pressure

For certain people with too high blood pressure, special rules apply. This concerns people with diabetes, heart diseases and older people.

Diabetes
With patients with diabetes, the blood pressure should be 130/80 or less. So your blood pressure must be even lower if you have diabetes.

Diabetes is a common illness and because many have the illness but no symptoms it is estimated that approximately twice as many as those diagnosed have diabetes – half of the people with diabetes just do not know it. The risk of having diabetes increases with age.

Around half of all people with diabetes have too high blood pressure. The combination of the too illnesses is extremely unfortunate. People with diabetes have 2-4 times greater risk of having a heart attack or stroke compared to people without diabetes – no matter what the blood pressure is. If you then, at the same time, have too blood pressure the risk is doubled.

Diabetes patients with too high blood pressure is treated with a certain medication (ACE inhibitor). Scientific studies have shown that exactly this medication is the best for people with both diabetes and too high blood pressure. If you also have albumin in your urine, you should be treated with the same preparation, no matter how high your blood pressure is.

Therefore, if your blood pressure is too high, the doctor always examines you for diabetes or whether you have albumin in your urine.

Older people
Blood pressure rises with age. However, this does not mean that too high blood pressure with an 80-year-old should not be treated – on the contrary. Older people have at least as much benefit from a low blood pressure as young people. The risk of having a heart attack or a stroke rises with age, and several scientific studies have shown that if the blood pressure is lowered with older people, this risk is significantly reduced.

The aim is a blood pressure of 140/90 or less – also with people of more than 80 years. A blood pressure of 140/90 with older people does not just protect the heart and the brain but also slows down the development of dementia.

Heart disease
Slight calcification in the coronary artery of the heart can appear as tightness across the chest – especially during strain. More pronounced calcification appears as continuous tightness across the chest or a heart attack with strong chest pains.

People with calcification of the heart together with too high blood pressure have a significant risk of dying or having a heart attack. And this risk very much depends on how high the blood pressure is.

Everyone with calcification of the heart should therefore have his or her blood pressure measured regularly. The aim is a blood pressure of 140/90 or less.