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Can you believe your heart beats about 60 to 80 times a minute
when you're relaxed? And with every heartbeat, your blood pressure
rises as oxygen is carried by blood cells throughout the body.
If you're healthy, your arteries are muscular and elastic. They stretch
when your heart pumps blood through them. High blood pressure harms
your arteries by making them stiff and thick - fat and cholesterol
are likely to stick to their walls. This increases your risk of heart
attack and stroke!
Your blood pressure is at its greatest when the heart contracts and
is pumping the blood. This is called systolic pressure. When the heart
is at rest in between beats, your blood pressure falls. This is the
diastolic pressure.
The only way to find out if you have high blood pressure is to
have it checked! Often there are no symptoms for the condition,
which makes it important to be reviewed by your local doctor. Risk
factors for high blood pressure include genetics, alcoholism, smoking
and a high-salt diet.
Being overweight can also contribute to high blood
pressure, so make sure you visit DietsLTD.com
or ExerciseLTD.com
to get yourself in shape!
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Stop Smoking!
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| Did you know that your body starts
to show signs of being healthier only 20 minutes after
your last cigarette? By that time, your blood pressure,
pulse rate and body temperature all return to baseline
levels. |
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| FACT FILE
From the American Heart Association …
High blood pressure (hypertension) killed 42,565
Americans in 1997 and contributed to the deaths of about
210,000.
As many as 50 million Americans age 6 and older have
high blood pressure.
One in five Americans (and one in four
adults) has high blood pressure.
Of those people with high blood pressure, 31.6 percent
don't know they have it.
Of all people with high blood pressure, 14.8 percent
aren't on therapy (special diet or drugs), 26.2 percent
are on inadequate therapy, and 27.4 percent are on adequate
therapy.
The cause of 90-95 percent of the cases of high blood
pressure isn't known; however, high blood pressure is
easily detected and usually controllable.
High blood pressure affects about one out of every
three African Americans.
Non-Hispanic blacks and Mexican Americans are more
likely to suffer from high blood pressure than are non-Hispanic
whites.
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