High blood pressure is also known as
hypertension. Blood pressure is the amount of force exerted against the walls
of the arteries as blood flows through them.
If a person has high blood pressure it means that the walls of
the arteries are receiving too much pressure repeatedly - the pressure needs to
be chronically elevated for a diagnosis of hypertension to be confirmed.
In medicine, chronic means for a sustained period; persistent.
In the United States, approximately 85 million
people have high blood pressure - about 1 in every 3 adults over 20,
according to the American Heart Association. The National Institutes of Health
estimate that about two-thirds of people over the age of 65 in the U.S. have
high blood pressure.
If left untreated or uncontrolled, high blood pressure
can cause many health problems. These conditions include heart failure,
vision loss, stroke, and kidney disease.
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