Sky Lakes Medical Center | Live Smart | Spring 2018

HYPERTENSION 101 Get smart about high blood pressure and your health at skylakes.org/ER . How adolescents can avoid high blood pressure By Mackenzie Peterson In adult-to-adult conversations, the term high blood pressure does not seem all that uncommon. When applied to teenagers or children, however, the idea may seem unfathomable. Unfortunately, high blood pressure, also known as hypertension, is becoming more prevalent in adolescents. The physician advice website VeryWell.com notes that a major cause of hypertension in teens is decreased cardiovascular fitness. The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommends 60 minutes of activity 5 days a week for children, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that, nationally, only about 1 in 5 individuals age 6 to 19 years old regularly attains that level. Take steps now There are serious dangers to having hypertension as an adolescent. Thomas D. Giles, MD, a professor of medicine at Tulane University School of Medicine, says, “If Help for hypertensive teens preteens and teens don’t modify their lifestyle to reverse these risk factors, they will wind up with serious complications like stroke, heart attack, early kidney disease and all the rest as young adults.” If you know or suspect that your child has hypertension, contact your family’s health care provider for guidance. While physical fitness can help reduce the likelihood of your child’s developing hypertension, it is not the only way to treat the problem. Additional factors may be in play and need to be considered. This is the takeaway: It is very important to encourage children to be more physically active in ways that suit them. Physical activity could be in the form of individual or group play or more organized sports. Regular and moderate aerobic exercise can significantly reduce blood pressure and improve overall health. Mackenzie Peterson KIDS’ HEALTH skylakes.org | LIVE smart 7 Editor's note: Mackenzie is Miss Klamath County’s Outstanding Teen 2018. Vascular disease awareness is her advocacy issue.