Even blood pressure that is just below "high" can increase your risk of stroke, an analysis of research shows. A normal blood pressure reading is below 120/80. High blood pressure is 140/90 or above. Pre-hypertension is the range between normal and high blood pressure. The new study put together results from 12 prior studies. They included more than 500,000 people with no history of heart disease or stroke. During the studies, people with pre-hypertension were 55% more likely to have a stroke than people with lower blood pressure. This was true even after numbers were adjusted to account for smoking and other factors that increase stroke risk. Then researchers split people with pre-hypertension into 2 groups. They found that stroke risk was increased only for those in the upper range of pre-hypertension. Their blood pressure readings were 130/85 to 139/89. This is just a few points below high blood pressure range. The journal Neurology published the study online September 28. USA Today and HealthDay News wrote about it.
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