High Blood Pressure: The Silent Killer

By Ellen S. Mullen M.D.

High blood pressure orbrhypertension is caused by your bloodbrrunning through your vessels at abrhigher pressure than normal. When thisbroccurs the smaller vessels in your bodybrcan be damaged which causes damagebrto the organs that are receiving bloodbrfrom these vessels. High blood pressurebris diagnosed by checking your bloodbrpressure with a cuff that goes aroundbryour arm. Blood pressure readingsbrare made up of two numbers which webrseparate by a slash. The top number isbrthe systolic blood pressure. It is the peakbrpressure measured when your heart isbrsqueezing the blood out. The bottombrnumber is called the diastolic pressurebrand is measured when your heart isbrrelaxing between beats and is refillingbrwith blood.br

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A normal blood pressure is lessbrthan 130/85 and high blood pressure isbr140/90 or greater. If your blood pressurebris between these two numbers it is calledbrprehypertension. If you have otherbrillnesses such as diabetes or heart diseasebryour doctor may want your bloodbrpressure to be less than 130/80. Why isbrit important to keep your blood pressurebrnormal? Hypertension increases yourbrrisk of stroke, kidney failure, heartbrdisease, heart attack and eye problems.br

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What can you do to decreasebryour blood pressure? One of the mostbrimportant things you can do is to stopbrsmoking if you do smoke. Also losingbrweight if you are overweight will lowerbryour blood pressure. Exercise regularly,breat more fruits and vegetables andbrdecrease your intake of salt, alcoholbrand caffeine. Decreasing the stress inbryour life and relaxing more can also bebrhelpful. Your doctor my have to startbryou on medications if you are not ablebrto decrease your blood pressure with thebrabove lifestyle changes. Medicines workbrin many different ways and often youbrmay need more than one medication tobrachieve a normal blood pressure. Youbrshould never discontinue medicationsbrwithout discussing this with your doctorbrfirst.br

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Most persons do not experiencebrany symptoms with high blood pressure.brTherefore it is important to regularlybrcheck your blood pressure and see yourbrdoctor if it is high. Don’t let the “silentbrkiller” catch you off guard! 

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