What Is High Blood Pressure?
Blood pressure is a measure of how hard the blood pushes against the walls of your arteries as it moves through your body. It’s normal for blood pressure to go up and down throughout the day, but if it stays up, you have high blood pressure. Another name for high blood pressure is hypertension. When blood pressure is high, it starts to damage the blood vessels, heart, and kidneys. This can lead to heart attack, stroke, and other problems. High blood pressure is called a “silent killer,’ because it doesn’t usually cause symptoms while it is causing this damage. Your blood pressure consists of two numbers: systolic and diastolic. Someone with a systolic pressure of 120 and a diastolic pressure of 80 has a blood pressure of 120/80, or “120 over 80.” • The systolic number shows how hard the blood pushes when the heart is pumping. • The diastolic number shows how hard the blood pushes between heartbeats, when the heart is relaxed and filling with blood. Adults should have a blood pressure o
When you have your blood pressure taken, your health care provider is measuring the pressure, or tension, that blood exerts on the walls of the blood vessels as it travels around the body. In a healthy person, this pressure is just enough for the blood to reach all the cells of the body, but not so much that it strains blood vessel walls.
