By LAURAN NEERGAARD
AP Medical Writer
WASHINGTON – A critical new report declares high blood pressure in the U.S. to be a neglected disease – a term that usually describes mysterious tropical illnesses, not a well-known plague of rich countries.
The prestigious Institute of Medicine said Monday that even though nearly one in three adults has hypertension, and it’s on the rise, fighting it apparently has fallen out of fashion: Doctors too often don’t treat it aggressively, and the government hasn’t made it enough of a priority, either.
Yet high blood pressure, the nation’s second-leading cause of death, is relatively simple to prevent and treat, the institute said.