by Karen Bledsoe

Created on: April 03, 2008   Last Updated: May 13, 2008

It's called the silent killer. It can sneak up on a person over years, causing only a few vague symptoms or none at all. If it's not caught and halted, it can kill with a suddenness that takes a person's family by surprise. It's hypertension, or high blood pressure, and while it can be easily diagnosed in a few minutes at the doctor's office, far too many people go undiagnosed until it's too late.

A LOOK AT BLOOD PRESSURE
Blood pressure is measured in two numbers. The first, the systolic pressure, is the pressure of blood in arteries when the heart is squeezing. The second, the diastolic pressure, is the pressure of blood in the arteries when the heart is relaxed between beats. Some people believe only the lower number, the diastolic, is important. In fact, both numbers are important in diagnosing hypertension and both need to be controlled. Using a blood pressure cuff, a health care professional determines whether your blood pressure is normal or not as follows:

Normal blood pressure: under 120/80
Prehypertension: systolic 120 to 139, diastolic 80 to 89
Stage 1 hypertension: systolic 140 to 159, diastolic 90-99
Stage 2 hypertension: 160/100 and above

CAUSES
No one knows exactly what causes hypertension. Risk of hypertension is increased if you:
- smoke
- are overweight
- get little physical activity
- get much sodium (from salt and other sources) in the diet
- drink too much alcohol
- have high stress
- have kidney disease
- have adrenal and thyroid disorders

SYMPTOMS
High blood pressure usually produces no symptoms and can only be detected using a blood pressure cuff. Some symptoms of extremely high blood pressure include headache, fatigue, confusion, vision problems, and irregular heartbeat.

DIAGNOSIS
A health care professional can measure your blood pressure using a blood pressure cuff. The cuff is placed around the arm or wrist and is pumped to a pressure higher than the systolic pressure. As the pressure is released, the health care professional listens to the artery in the arm with a stethoscope to detect when blood begins spurting through the artery, when the pressure of the cuff is between systolic and diastolic. When the pressure of the cuff goes below the diastolic pressure, the spurting sound ceases as normal blood flow resumes. In some cases, a doctor may ask a patient to wear an automatic blood pressure cuff that will take pressure at regular intervals throughout the day to see how it changes with different activities. People with hypertension should monitor their

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