Many Americans have high blood pressure and do not even know it.

Hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, is a silent killer that lurks among us, helping to claim millions of lives every year.

According to a new study published in The Lancet, the number of kids under age 19 who have high blood pressure has doubled worldwide since 2000. The rest of the population isn’t faring much better either: In the US, nearly half of Americans have hypertension — twice the rate from a generation ago.

That might mean you, too. And I’m sorry, but the news gets worse: Thanksgiving is the disease’s favorite time of year. It seems our social calendar and our food supply are conspiring to give each of us this too-often-overlooked condition — with potentially deadly consequences.

Only about half of the people who have hypertension have it under control, a figure that has been declining over the past 10 years, even though this is among the most tractable public health problems that we have. With better monitoring, lifestyle modification, and medication, it is possible to reduce someone’s high blood pressure.

But the problem is, many of the people who have it, especially younger patients, are totally unaware.

...read more at vox.com