High Blood Pressure Awareness Month

Half of all Americans have high blood pressure, also known as hypertension, and many don’t even know they have it. High blood pressure develops when blood flows through your arteries at higher-than-normal pressures

You usually don’t have symptoms from high blood pressure until it has caused serious health problems. About 1 in 3 U.S. adults with high blood pressure aren’t even aware they have it and are not being treated to control their blood pressure. That is why it is important to have your blood pressure checked at least once a year.

Systolic pressure is the pressure when the ventricles pump blood out of the heart. 

Diastolic pressure is the pressure between heartbeats when the heart is filling with blood.