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High Blood Pressure About one in every four American adults has high blood pressure. High blood pressure is especially dangerous because it often gives no warning signs or symptoms. Fortunately, though, you can find out if you have high blood pressure by having your blood pressure checked regularly. If it is high, you can take steps to lower it.Anyone can develop high blood pressure, but some people are more likely to develop it than others. For example, high blood pressure is more common--it develops earlier and is more severe--in African-Americans than in whites. In the early and middle adult years, men have high blood pressure more often than women. But as men and women age, the reverse is true. More women after menopause have high blood pressure than men of the same age. According to a recent study in Baltimore City by Johns Hopkins researchers, young, African-American men are at especially high risk of developing hypertension (high blood pressure), leading to heart and kidney damage. Everyone--regardless of race, age, sex, or heredity--can help lower their chance of developing high blood pressure. Here's how:
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, also called hypertension, is a risk factor for heart and kidney diseases and stroke. This means that having high blood pressure increases your chance (or risk) of getting heart or kidney disease, or of having a stroke. This is serious business: heart disease is the number one killer in the United States, and stroke is the third most common cause of death.
