It was a tough year. The loss of loved ones, a global pandemic, and social networks splintered as Americans grappled with stress, unemployment, and depression.
The nation's blood pressure shot up.
Blood pressure readings for nearly half a million people showed a significant rise last year, compared with the previous year, according to scientists.
The pressure of blood against the walls of the arteries is measured. Increased pressure can damage the body over time. Sexual function can be affected.
The American Heart Association's president, who was not involved in the study, said that the data were shocking.
Changes in average blood pressure in the population can have a huge impact on the number of strokes, heart failure events and heart attacks that we are likely to be seeing in the coming months.
Even in the midst of a Pandemic that has claimed more than 785,000 American lives and disrupted access to health care, chronic health conditions must still be managed.
Half of all American adults have high blood pressure, also known as hypertension, a chronic condition that can have life-threatening consequences, though it produces few symptoms.
People with high blood pressure are more likely to get severe disease if they are exposed to the coronaviruses. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there is some evidence for that link.
A new study by researchers at the Cleveland Clinic and Quest Diagnostics looked at data from hundreds of thousands of employees and their spouses who participated in a company program that tracked blood pressure and other health indicators. People with elevated blood pressure and normal blood pressure were included in the study.
People weren't exercising as much, weren't getting regular care, were drinking more and sleeping less, and that's what we observed. We wanted to know if their blood pressure changed during the Pandemic.
The researchers found that blood pressure readings increased from April to December, but that they did not change from the first three months of 2020.
Blood pressure is measured in units of mercury and consists of two numbers. The first and second numbers refer to the pressure of the heart as it contracts and rests between beats. There is a long-standing dispute about the optimal blood pressure levels.
The study found that the average monthly change from April 2020 to December 2020 was 1.10mm Hg to 2.50mm Hg for systolic blood pressure and 0.14mm Hg to 0.53 for diastolic blood pressure.
Both men and women experienced increases. Women had larger increases in their blood pressure.
The average age of the study participants was over 45. Critics said that the lack of information on the race and ethnicity of participants was a weakness in the study, as hypertension is more prevalent among Black Americans than among white or Hispanic Americans.
Black people have been disproportionately affected by the flu. An analysis would not be meaningful if the information on race and ethnicity was only available for 6 percent of the study participants.
There is a big difference between black Americans and white Americans when it comes to hypertension, according to Dr. Kim Williams, a cardiologist at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.
The African-American population has been affected by the hypertensive state for decades. The gap is widening despite the fact that our therapies have improved. We know that the Pandemic has hit different cultures and different aspects of society in different ways.
The causes of an increase in blood pressure are not known. The reasons may include an increase in alcohol consumption, a decline in exercise, rising stress, a drop in doctors' visits and less adherence to a medication regimen.
The researchers said that the men and women in the study had not gained more weight than usual and that the effect of weight gain on blood pressure was not known.
The experts pointed out that the average figures for weight gain might be overstated.
Dr. Lloyd-Jones said it was probably multifactorial. Many people lost contact with the health care system and lost control of their blood pressure and diabetes.
The penalty for not paying more attention to overall health and the management of underlying medical conditions might be more than the coronaviruses.
He said that public health consequences from not seeing your doctor regularly include poor diet and not exercising. It is potentially more profound if we think about the long-term implications.
