More than a billion people around the world live with high blood pressure, especially in countries where access to healthcare and healthy food may be limited.
This common condition is often called a “silent killer” because it can damage the body quietly for years without showing any clear signs—until serious problems like heart disease or stroke occur.
So, what exactly is high blood pressure? It’s a condition where the force of blood pressing against the walls of your arteries is too strong. We measure blood pressure with two numbers. The first number is systolic pressure, which shows the force when your heart is actively pumping.
The second number is diastolic pressure, which shows the pressure when your heart is resting between beats. If both of these numbers—or even just one—is too high during more than one doctor’s visit, you may be diagnosed with high blood pressure.
High blood pressure is one of the biggest risk factors for heart disease all over the world. As blood pressure goes up, so does the chance of heart attacks, strokes, and even death. Most of the focus has been on systolic pressure, the top number, because it has shown a strong link to heart disease.
But it’s been less clear how much the bottom number—diastolic pressure—matters. Also, people with high blood sugar (like those with diabetes or prediabetes) tend to have more heart problems, but scientists are still working to understand how blood sugar and blood pressure might work together to increase risk.
To explore this further, researchers in Japan—Dr. Kazuya Fujihara and Professor Hirohito Sone—studied health records from more than 800,000 people. They looked at how blood pressure and blood sugar levels affected the chances of having a heart attack or stroke. This study was based on real-world health data, not just controlled lab settings.
They found something important: as blood pressure increased, so did the risk of heart disease and stroke—no matter the person’s blood sugar level. Both the top and bottom numbers mattered, but an increase in diastolic pressure was especially concerning.
Even small rises in blood pressure, especially when combined with high blood sugar, made the risk of serious heart problems much greater. This shows that these two conditions—high blood pressure and high blood sugar—can work together to raise health risks even more than either one alone.
This finding is especially important for people in Asia, where the patterns of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes differ from those in Western countries.
In Asia, for example, people tend to have more strokes than heart attacks, and their diabetes may show up differently. Because of this, researchers believe that health guidelines should be adjusted to better suit Asian populations.
Dr. Fujihara encourages people to keep their systolic blood pressure below 120 when possible and to make simple lifestyle changes—like eating less salt—to protect their hearts. Even small changes can help. However, scientists also agree that more research is needed to fully understand how blood sugar and blood pressure interact, especially in people with diabetes.
If you’re someone who wants to keep your heart healthy, it’s important to stay informed. New studies are always coming out that look at things like how exercise in middle age can improve heart health, or how certain medicines might work better when combined. The more we learn, the better choices we can make.
This major study was published in Diabetes Care and adds to our growing understanding of how blood pressure affects heart health—not just for people in Japan, but for everyone around the world.
If you care about blood sugar, please read studies about why blood sugar is high in the morning, and how to cook sweet potatoes without increasing blood sugar.
For more information about brain health, please see recent studies about 9 unhealthy habits that damage your brain, and results showing this stuff in cannabis may protect aging brain, treat Alzheimer’s.
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