Is 130/80 very high blood pressure for a 62 year old?

No, 130/80 is not considered very high, but it is at the threshold that current US guidance calls stage 1 hypertension. The 2017 ACC/AHA guideline, which many US clinicians follow, defines normal as below 120/80 and stage 1 as 130 to 139 systolic or 80 to 89 diastolic. The 2017 guideline applies the same cut-offs at every age, including 62. Other guidelines, such as the European ones, set the hypertension line a little higher, at 140/90, so 130/80 falls in their normal-to-high-normal range.

What matters more than one reading is the pattern over time. Blood pressure varies through the day, and a single reading in a doctor's office can run high. Guidelines usually ask for several readings taken at home or on separate visits, and they weigh that against other risks such as diabetes, kidney disease, smoking, cholesterol and family history. For someone your age, a doctor will often look at your overall cardiovascular risk score before deciding whether to start medication, and lifestyle changes like reducing salt, regular activity, limiting alcohol and keeping a healthy weight are the usual first steps.

Since I can't see your full health picture, please talk to your doctor about your own situation, including whether your readings are consistently at this level and what your overall risk looks like.

Also discussed here:
- Do Common Food Preservatives Raise Blood Pressure and Heart Risk?
- Chemically confirmed traces of blood found in 115-million-year-old dinosaur bones
- AI data center boom is causing higher interest rates and pressure on everyone and even corporations according to Jamie Dimon of Chase:…