Is your blood pressure reading just below the cut-off for high blood pressure?

Don’t heave a sigh of relief… Because according to a new study from Southern Medical University in China, this slight rise in blood pressure could cause up to 95% increase in stroke risk.

But, depending on your situation, borderline high blood pressure may or may not be so serious.

Getting down to the basics, blood pressure is measured in two numbers, systolic and diastolic. Systolic pressure measures the pressure in the arteries when the heart beats and diastolic pressure measures pressure between heartbeats.

Any reading below 120/80 mm Hg is considered to be normal blood pressure. Any reading above 140/90 mm Hg is considered as high blood pressure or hypertension.

Now, we focus on pre-hypertension or any reading that falls between the normal and high blood pressure range. Dr. Yuli Huang and his colleagues did an exhaustive study combining the results of 19 different studies targeting about 762,393 participants across the world.

It was found that people with elevated but not high blood pressure were 66 percent more likely to develop stroke!

Next, the researchers studied the risk of developing stroke in a group with low range pre-hypertension readings (120/80 mm Hg to 129/84 mm Hg) versus high range pre-hypertension readings (130/85 mm Hg to 139/89 mm Hg).

The results showed a drastic difference between the two groups – while low range pre-hypertension was linked to 44 percent increased risk of stroke, high range pre-hypertension was linked to nearly 95 percent increased risk of developing stroke.

Neurologists who specialize in stroke are really concerned about pre-hypertension. To give you an idea, according to the Cleveland Clinic reports, men over 60 years have 11 percent risk of developing stroke. Adding a 44 percent rise in the risk brings it up to 16 percent.

The good news is that borderline high blood pressure can most often quite easily be managed using natural methods. Reduce stress, take less salt, eat a healthy diet and exercise to drive stroke away.

The best method to naturally lower blood pressure (borderline or higher), is the use of 3 easy exercises. These exercises have been proven to help lower blood pressure and bring it down to readings below 120/80 – starting today. Learn more here…