Blood pressure epidemic as doctors warn our lifestyle is killing us, reports Daily Mail

Nine in ten Britons can expect to suffer high blood pressure, putting them at risk of heart disease, stroke and kidney failure.Alcohol abuse, smoking, a salt-rich diet and a lack of exercise have caused the condition to soar out of control, warn medical experts today.

Hypertension, the medical term, is now diagnosed even in adolescents and children and if ignored could lead to a “partly irreversible high-risk condition years later”, says an editorial in the Lancet journal.

A global epidemic means the number of sufferers worldwide will soar past the billion mark in the next 20 years.

In developed countries such as the UK, the lifetime risk of developing the condition is now more than 90 per cent.

Hypertension is triggered by obesity, diabetes and high cholesterol levels. Poor lifestyle and failing to keep up with effective treatments were identified by the Lancet as major obstacles in tackling the condition.

The editorial says: “Lifestyle factors, such as physical inactivity, a salt-rich diet with high processed and fatty foods, and alcohol and tobacco use, are at the heart of this increased disease burden, which is spreading at an alarming rate from developed countries to emerging economies such as India and China.”