In contrast with both black Africans and white Americans, black Americans are more likely to be diagnosed with high blood pressure (hypertension). Some studies have suggested that hypertension is present in as many as 40 percent of the black American community, where some researchers are labeling it an “epidemic.” Black Americans also tend to be younger when diagnosed and to have more severe hypertension than white Americans. They are also less likely to be able to control their high blood pressure than white Americans. As a result, black Americans are at particularly high risk of hypertension-related complications, such as:

• Stroke. High blood pressure is a major risk factor for stroke, a condition in which the blood supply to the brain is disrupted, either by bleeding into the brain (hemorrhagic stroke) or blocked by a blood clot (ischemic stroke). Therefore, people of all races are at greater risk of a fatal stroke if they have high blood pressure. However, the risk for black Americans is a full 80 percent higher than among other Americans.
  
  
• Death from heart disease. Hypertension causes the heart to work harder to pump blood through narrowed arteries in the body, which could lead to heart failure or contribute to coronary artery disease or heart attack. In fact, hypertension is the leading cause of heart failure among black Americans. Black American men are twice as likely as white men to die of heart failure, and black American women are almost three times as likely as white women to die of heart failure. Black Americans – especially black American women – are less likely to survive a heart attack than white Americans.
  
  
• Kidney failure. Hypertension can affect the arteries that supply oxygen-rich blood to the kidneys, contributing to kidney failure. Among black Americans, the leading cause of partial or complete kidney failure is believed to be poorly controlled high blood pressure. In fact, African American are eight times more likely to develop kidney failure than white Americans and the risk of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) from hypertension is three times greater among black Americans than other Americans.
  
  
• Blindness. Hypertension can damage the arteries that supply oxygen-rich blood to the eyes. Those fragile arteries can burst, causing vision problems or even blindness. Blindness can also result if the retina detaches from the rest of the eye. Eye damage due to hypertension has an incidence in black Americans twice that of white Americans.