The Canadian Health Measures Survey, compiled by Statistics Canada, has suggested that 19 per cent of Canadians aged 20 to 79, or about 4.6 million, have hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, that makes them more prone to heart attacks, strokes and kidney disease

"It went up dramatically with age. In the age group 20 to 39, there was only a prevalence of two per cent of hypertension; at ages 40 to 59, it was 19 per cent; and then at 60 to 79, over half u 53 per cent of people u had hypertension", posted Kathryn Wilkins, a Senior Analyst at Statistics Canada who led the study.

The 2007-2009 survey is reported to test 3,514 adult samples that represents 23.7 million Canadians, which found that 20 per cent possessed readings, lying in the pre-hypertension range, while 61 per cent had normal blood pressure.

The study revealed that about 80 per cent of those with hypertension are being medicated with drugs, and in 66% of the cases, the medications are effective in controlling blood pressure.

However, in 6.6 per cent, the condition was witnessed as out of control, signifying that blood pressure remained too high, said Wilkins, noting that prevalence of hypertension was virtually the same in men and women.