[quote=spdrun][quote=svelte][quote=spdrun] If you have high blood pressure as a 35 year old, you likely have much lower chance of dying than 6%. [/quote]
Please point me to the data that supports this statement for those with coronavirus.[/quote]
This data came from an observations that were also not controlled for age or other factors.
Nowhere in that link does it say that having high blood pressure at 35 is much lower than 6%. Nowhere.
Here are some direct quotes from that link and the links at that link:
“The risk of high blood pressure increases as patients get older.”
This in no way says that a 35 yo with HBP is at less risk. It just says that you’re at more risk to get HBP as you get older.
“Edwards also noted that in most patients, based on available data, symptoms tend to be mild, especially among younger people.”
While it is unclear, this does not appear to be referring to those with HBP and coronavirus, but those with coronavirus.
“Of a group of 170 patients who died in January in Wuhan — the first wave of casualties caused by a pathogen that’s now raced around the world — nearly half had hypertension.”
Since more than half that died had hypertension, those were predominately older because that is the age group that died and because those are the people that tend to have hypertension.
Now let me point you to something that tends to give a reason why coronavirus tends to hit those with HBP, and this reason appears to be independent of age:
“People with high blood pressure and diabetes could be at higher risk of severe or fatal coronavirus symptoms because of how their medicines work, scientists say.
Drugs called ACE inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers may change the shape of someone’s cells in a way that makes it easier for the coronavirus to infect them and cause a more severe illness.”
The quote above is independent of age – ACE inhibitors change cells in a way that makes them more receptive to coronavirus.
“They found that the most common illnesses among severely-ill coronavirus patients were high blood pressure (23.7 per cent), diabetes (16.2 per cent) and heart disease (5.8 per cent).
And by studying how the coronavirus and SARS, which is almost identical, attach to cells inside people’s bodies they came up with a theory of how the blood pressure drugs might make this easier for the viruses.”
Neither of us will be able to prove our position until many more studies are done. But it is premature to say that HBP is more of a problem with the elderly.
