What is blood pressure?
- Blood moves through the body in blood vessels called arteries.
- Blood pressure is the amount of pressure against the arteries when your heart beats.
What is good blood pressure?
- The best blood pressure for most people is less than 120/80.
- High blood pressure is called hypertension.
- Ask your doctor at every visit what your blood pressure goal is.
It is important to know your blood pressure. You may have high blood pressure and not know it. High blood pressure is often called "the silent killer."
Why is high blood pressure bad?
High blood pressure can cause:
- Heart attack and other heart problems.
- Stroke.
- Kidney problems.
- Eye problems.
What causes high blood pressure?
- High blood pressure can run in families.
- Your chance of having it goes up as you get older and is higher if you have other health problems like heart disease, kidney disease or diabetes.
You can help control your blood pressure by making healthy choices.
Healthy
- Don’t smoke.
- Exercise.
- Healthy weight.
- Healthy diet.
- Don’t drink too much alcohol.
- Control stress and anger.
- Get enough sleep.
- See your doctor.
- Take medicine, if needed.
Unhealthy
- Smoking.
- Not exercising.
- Overweight.
- Poor diet.
- Drinking too much alcohol.
- Uncontrolled stress and anger.
- Not enough sleep.
- Not keeping follow-up appointments.
