May is High Blood Pressure Education Month
May might be the month with all the flowers the April showers bring us. But May is also High Blood Pressure Education Month. Also called hypertension, high blood pressure can lead to strokes and heart attacks. You might already know that. But did you know high blood pressure can damage body organs and lead to kidney failure? Even the tiny blood vessels at the back of your eyes can be damaged when the pressure is too high in those blood vessels. The worst part is that many people are unaware that their blood pressure is elevated-- sometimes dangerously so. That’s one of the reasons hypertension is known as “the silent killer.” There may be no symptoms. The Food and Drug Administration estimates that nearly half of American adults have high blood pressure. More and more, the condition is turning up in American children.
What causes high blood pressure? How is the condition diagnosed? Can it be treated? To learn the answers and much more, check out these sites: