American Morning

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February 23rd, 2010
08:00 AM ET

Don't ignore hypertension

High blood pressure is simple to diagnose and easy to treat, yet it is the second leading cause of preventable death in the U.S.

Now, a new report from the Institute of Medicine says hypertension is responsible for one out of every six adult deaths. Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta has the report.
Filed under: Health
soundoff (3 Responses)
  1. Robert McCally

    Gotta say I was “disappointed when Sanjay Gupta spoke on hospital “costs”. The prices for equipment he stated may be what his hospital charges BUT it is NOT what they pay!!! I used to work in a surgical center. Sutures do not cost $200/pkg. More like $60/box and there are 6-10 pkgs./ box!! Another example from a recent hospital visit I was charged $26.01 for generic OTC Prilosec. This regularly sells in Walgreens for $25.95 for a 6 wk. supply!! Talk about a rip-off.
    As to insurance companies “negotiating” with hospitals, if my insurance company is only paying 50% of these outrageously high marked up prices, they’re paying too much! This of course gets them higher premiums. Truthfully, Medical Suppliers, hospitals, doctors and insurance companies( many of which are governed largely by doctors) are in collusion to rip off the American public!

    Robert McCally

    February 24, 2010 at 8:47 am |
  2. Aline Manzi

    My hypertension is high-borderline, sometimes too high. I've tried 9 different b.p. meds and had poor results or allergies or unacceptable side effects. The one I now take, the best I've ever done is 150/70, and rarely that low. My hypertension started when post-polio sequelae caught up with me (from childhood polio, I'm now 82). I always had lots of exercise, till the last several years. I no longer can exercise lower body, limited walking (25 ftt. slowly, at one time), only chair exercises; have limited mobility with the leg muscle problems; I eat a healthy diet, low-salt, lots of veggies and fruits, red meat not more than once weekly, etc. Weight not bad. No doctor pays attention to my own observations of my problems, because doctors rarely listen to patients plus they have tunnel vision and only see what they expect to see. I cannot travel to find "experts". All the hypertension "rules", none apply to me.

    February 23, 2010 at 8:04 pm |
  3. M. Crain

    John Roberts and others should know salt substitutes contain potassium which can also cause cardiac symptoms.

    February 23, 2010 at 10:44 am |
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