Sample Press Release | [Print on your letterhead]
| | FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
[Date] | Contact: [Name of Your Spokesperson]
[Your Phone Number]
| | NHLBI Communications Office
(301) 496-4236 | May is National High Blood Pressure Education Month [Your Group] Joins NHLBI Mission to Prevent and Control High Blood Pressure [Your city, state] [the date]
May 2005 is National High Blood Pressure Education Month, and groups throughout the country are joining together to encourage all Americans to prevent and control high blood pressure, which affects more than 65 million Americans and leads to more than 1 million heart attacks, strokes, and heart failure cases in the U.S. each year. The theme this year is "Prevent and Control High Blood Pressure: Mission Possible." [Your group] will be a major player, sponsoring [or hosting] high blood pressure education activities on May [date or range of dates]. The event [or program] will [add more specific information about your event: brief description, time, location, contact information, URL if information is on the Internet]. High blood pressure affects more than 1 in every 3 American adults - and if not controlled, leads to heart disease, stroke, and kidney disease, the first, third, and ninth leading causes of death in the U.S., each year. Its economic cost to the Nation exceeds $100 billion each year. In [your state or locality] high blood pressure affects [insert your state-specific data here]. According to [your spokesperson], "High blood pressure is a significant - and growing --public health problem in [your community], and National High Blood Pressure Education Month provides a special opportunity to increase public awareness of the burden it places on all of us. By working with all Americans throughout the country who are concerned about high blood pressure each May, we think that we can help reduce this burden." National High Blood Pressure Education Month is an annual event coordinated by the National High Blood Pressure Education Program (NHBPEP) at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health. According to NHLBI Director Dr. Elizabeth Nabel, "The national effort to prevent, detect, and control high blood pressure has made great progress during the past 30 years, but there is much more to do, especially as our population ages and becomes more overweight and obese. National High Blood Pressure Education Month is a time for us to reinvigorate our efforts to prevent and control high blood pressure throughout the country." High blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart disease and the chief risk factor for stroke and heart failure; it also can lead to kidney disease, blindness, and mental deterioration. Treatment aims to lower blood pressure to less than 120 mm Hg systolic and less than 80 mm Hg diastolic for most people with hypertension, (less than 130 systolic and less than 80 diastolic for those with diabetes and chronic kidney disease). | 
